Cotton fabrics with antibacterial and antiviral properties produced by a simple pad-dry-cure process using diphenolic acid

In the present work, diphenolic acid (DPA), a sustainable green platform chemical, was employed as a finishing reagent to impart antibacterial and antiviral functions to cotton fabric. After a simple pad-dry-cure process, DPA molecules were covalently linked onto cotton fiber surfaces via the esterification reaction between their carboxyl groups and the hydroxyl groups of cellulose on the fiber surfaces. The DPA phenolic groups induced onto the cotton fibers enable to destroy pathogens by protein affinity interaction. Experimental results show that the DPA modified fabrics realize not only high bacteriostatic reduction rates (BR) against both Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus , but also show excellent antivirus effect that allow a rapid virus inactivation shorter than 20 min. It was also demonstrated that the modification process generated insignificant damage on the cotton fiber structure, and the resultant cotton fabrics are safe for human skin. Therefore, this work may open a new way to endow cotton textiles with antibacterial and antiviral functions.