A Simultaneous Antimicrobial And Shrinkproofing Functional Treatment Of Wool Fabric Using Polyhexamethylene Biguanide

The concern of consumers about health and hygienic problems results in increasing demand for antimicrobial functional textiles. Antimicrobial treatments of textiles have attracted considerable attention of researchers and manufacturers. A number of antimicrobial treatments that impart textiles microbiostatic or microbiocidal properties have been presented and a number of antimicrobial synthetic and cotton fiber products are commercially available. However, commercial antimicrobial wool products have not been available so far. Because of the particular chemical structure of wool fibers, no effective and economical treatment for wool has been developed. This study which is of the mode in accordance with China-France Double-master-degree program was achieved in the research organization CSIRO in Australia. It aims to research a novel wool antimicrobial and shrink-resistant treatmentThe research adopted common polymeric biocide polyhexamethylene biguanide （PHMB） which was applied to treat wool fabrics realizing the antimicrobial and shrinkproofing functionalization. Wool fabrics could take up a large amount of the polymeric biocide （up to-4.5%, on weight of fabric）, either by exhaustion or padding, after a peroxymonosulfate （PMS）/sulphite pretreatment. Such treated wool fabrics had effective and durable antimicrobial activity according to the quantitative antimicrobial test method AATCC 100-1999: the wool fabrics treated with 4% and 8% （o.w.f., on weight of fabric） PHMB remained more than 93% antimicrobial reduction even after 5 washes. The tests of Eosin Y staining and FT-IR proved that PHMB had a decent washing durability on wool fabrics; Meanwhile, the deposition of polymeric PHMB on wool fabrics improved the shrink-resistant properties; Wool fabrics’ physical properties such as tensile strength and bending property had not been considerately impaired after PMS/Na₂SO₃ pretreatment and PHMB treatment. In this study, the influence of two procedures, exhaustion and padding, had been compared on antimicrobial and shrink-resistant properties. The fabrics treated in exhaustion procedure had better dimensional stability than padding did. However, padding saves energy and treating time. Regarding to the different applications and product properties, apply appropriate quantity of PHMB and procedure.The results in this study have utility value on antimicrobial and shrinkproofing dual functional treatments of wool textiles.