Multifunctional phosphorylated cellulose fabric with enhanced antibacterial and mechanical properties based on a Tris...

Cellulose fabric, as a popular textile material, demands multifunctional modification to broaden its application landscape. Although phosphorylation is an effective approach to endow flame retardancy, it often severely impairs the mechanical properties of cellulose fabric. To address this challenge, a buffering strategy was developed to alleviate this problem in this study while concurrently achieving antibacterial performance. A multifunctional flame-retardant and antibacterial cotton fabric was prepared via a one-pot process using triphosphate acid ATMP as cross-linker, and Tris as both a buffer and an N-halamine precursor. ATMP/Tris-modified fabric exhibited excellent flame retardancy with 31.7% of LOI value and self-extinguishing performance at a low weight gain. Simultaneously, the formation of N-halamine structures conferred superior antibacterial efficacy against E. coli and S. aureus, resulting in complete inactivation within a few minutes without any leaching. The multifunctional fabric exhibited notable washing durability, retaining 83% of its original LOI value after repeated laundering. Notably, in addition to maintaining good flexibility, the incorporation of Tris significantly improved the whiteness, air permeability, and breaking force of cellulose fabric compared to the ATMP-modified counterpart. Therefore, this work offers a simple strategy to enhance the comprehensive properties of flame-retardant multifunctional cellulose fabric.