Abstract

This paper reports preparation of four samples of styrene-acrylic emulsion copolymers. It was performed in the presence of acrylic-acid, acryl amid, ammonium persulfate as a free radical initiator and sodium dodecyl benzene sulfate as an anionic emulsifier at 80°C. The Ag nanoparticles were almost monodisperse in nature and their average diameter was approximately 12.5 nm. The fabric shows antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli depending upon the extent of grafting of the polymer network onto the fabric and the amount of nano Ag loaded into the grafted fabric. The synthesized emulsion copolymers was formulated by pigmented printing paste in the presence of an acrylic thickener into different concentration, 3 and 5% and then printed on cotton and polyester/ cotton blend fabrics and then dried at 95°C for 2 min and then fixed at 150°C for 3 min. The characteristics of cured prints such as paste add-on, colour fastness K/S together with fabrics stiffness were investigated. The resulting Ag nanoparticle-loaded grafted fabric was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. The highest K/S is obtained and the fastness properties range between good and excellent for samples printed using methyl metha acrylate styrene (MMA) and lowest K/S is obtained in case of using ethyl acrylate styrene (EA) as a commercial binder.

Key words: Styrene-acrylic emulsion copolymers, antibacterial, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis.