Esterification process of incorporation CS2 activation and its effect on the properties of hydrophobic modified cotton filter fabric via ARGET-ATRP

Abstract

Hydrophobic modification of cellulose via activation synergistic activators regenerated by electron transfer (ARGET) atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) method has been proved to effectively improve the long-term hydrophobic stability of cotton filter fabric. However, the extra activation process will inevitably increase the complexity of the reaction process. In this work, carbon disulfide (CS2) was incorporated into the ARGET-ATRP reaction system to avoid adding redundant reaction links. Specifically, the activation and acyl bromination processes were combined, and then the graft modification reaction between the acyl bromide cotton filter fabric and 1-octadecene (1-Oct) was realized by the ARGET-ATRP. The effect of the combined process on the hydrophobic modification reaction and performance of cotton filter fabric was investigated. The results showed that, under the optimum dosages of activator CS2, acyl bromide reagent BiB and monomer 1-Oct, the activator CS2 was directly incorporated into the acyl bromination process. And after ARGET-ATRP Hydrophobic modification, the initial water contact angle (CA) of the obtained hydrophobically modified cotton filter fabric reached 145.0°, the residual contact angle (RCA) after the water droplet retention time of 210 min could still arrive at 125.4°, showing a corresponding attenuation rate (Dr) of 13.5%, which suggested excellent hydrophobicity and durability. Notably, the hydrophobically modified cotton filter fabric also exhibited excellent resistance to chemical corrosion, abrasion resistance and ultrasonic stripping resistance. Furthermore, this hydrophobically modified filter fabric can efficiently separate different types of oil–water mixtures. Even after 12 cycles of oil–water separation process, the separation efficiency still exceeded 95%, and the CA of the modified filter fabric before and after separation was basically unchanged.