Construction of Ag-mediated organic-inorganic phosphorus-hybrid coating for flame-retardant and antibacterial cotton fabrics

Abstract

Cotton fabrics (CF) with high flame retardancy and antibacterial performance are attracting more and more attention in the practical applications, e.g. home decorations. In this work, a novel Ag-mediated organic-inorganic phosphorus-hybrid coating (5BL/Ag-D) was developed using polyethylene imine (PEI)/ammonium polyphosphate (APP) polyelectrolyte bilayer and Ag-phosphoryl triazole complex (AgD) via dip-coating method for flame-retardant CF with the antibacterial property. Interestingly, limiting oxygen index (LOI) of CF/5BL/Ag-D was sharply promoted to 33.5 % from 18.6 % of CF. Besides, CF/5BL/Ag-D could self-extinguish in the vertical burning test with afterflame time and afterglow time as low as 0 s. More importantly, as revealed in the cone calorimeter tests (CCT), the heat release involving peak heat release rate (PHRR) and total heat release (THR) of CF/5BL/Ag-D decreased from 193.8 kW/m2 and 14.8 MJ/m2 of CF to merely 16.7 kW/m2 and 3.2 MJ/m2, respectively. In addition, owing to the presence of Ag+, CF/5BL/Ag-D was endowed with the desired antibacterial property, and the bacteriostatic rates of CF/5BL/Ag-D on escherichia coli (E. coli) and staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were up to 94.7 % and 95.1 %, respectively. Moreover, the softness, the whiteness and the mechanical properties of CF/5BL/Ag-D were comparable to those of CF. In general, this work provides a promising approach to prepare Ag-mediated organic-inorganic phosphorus-hybrid coating for multifunctional cotton fabrics.