Study On The Preparation And Properties Of Nano Cu-ZnO Modified Antibacterial Polyester Fibers

Poly(ethylene terephthalate)(PET)fiber is applied to clothing,home textiles and other fields due to its low cost,high strength,quick-drying and stable structure,etc.PET fiber owns high specific surface area where will raise the microbial adhesion and spread of bacteria,but regular PET lack of the property of antibacterial.With the raising of environmental protection and health problems,designing and developing a PET fiber with excellent antibacterial properties is very impotant.The antibacterial property of PET fiber is mainly depends on the antibacterial agents.At present,the main antibacterial agents are natural,organic and inorganic antibacterial agents.Inorganic antibacterial agents have been widely attaracted by their high efficient antibacterial property,broad spectrum antimicrobial property and good stability.Meanwhile,the development of antibacterial agents is ecological,friendly and safety.In the developing of antibacterial agents,nano ZnO is an excellent ecological antibacterial agent and is becoming one of the most widely used inorganic antibacterial agent,due to its advantage of high redox potential,superior physical and chemical stability,inexpensiveness and nontoxicity.In this paper,nano Cu-ZnO was prepared by sol–gel method,and the composites of PET/ CuZnO were prepared by melting blend and in-situ polymerization.Furthermore,antibacterial PET/ Cu-ZnO fiber was obtained by melt spinning.The main results are summarized as followed:(1)Five nano Cu-ZnO compounds with different molar ratio were prepared by sol–gel method.TGA results show that the best solid precursor calcined temperature is 600 °C.XRD and TEM results show that the solubility limit of Cu in ZnO is below 5% and particle size is between 100~200 nm.The UV-visible spectra results show that with increasing Cu2+ content,the visible-light absorption ability of Cu-ZnO is improved,and the antibacterial activity is enhanced.Cu-ZnO(0.1:1)has excellent antibacterial activity against E.coli and S.aureus.(2)Five different PET/Cu-ZnO composites were prepared by melt blending.With the increase of nano Cu-ZnO loading,the crystallization property of modified PET increases first and then decreases,the crystallization rate and thermo stability of PET increases.T_c increases from 190 °C to 212.7 °C and T_d increases from 405.2 °C to 410.7 °C.(3)Blend antibacterial fiber were prepared by melt spinning.With the increase of nano CuZnO loading,the dispersity of nanoparticles in PET matrix weakened,even conglomeration occured.Whenadding 0.5wt% nano Cu-ZnO to PET,the breaking strength of fiber is 2.2 c N/dtex and elongation at break is 58.26%.The antibacterial test shows that the minimize addition of nano CuZnO is 1wt% which could meet the antibacterial requirement.After 50 laundering times,the antibacterial rate against E.coli and S.aureus is 73.6% and 80.1%,respectively.(4)Then four other antibacterial PET/Cu-ZnO composites chips with different additive amount were prepared by in-situ polymerization to improve the dispensability of nano Cu-ZnO in PET matrix.The intrinsic viscosities of PET/Cu-ZnO composites are between 0.665 and 0.712 d L/g,while PET/ZnO composites are from 0.722 to 0.736 d L/g.The DEG content of PET/ZnO composites is higher than 10% while PET/Cu-ZnO composites is lower than 3%.The DSC results show that nano Cu-ZnO acted as nucleating agent which could improve the crystallization of PET composites.T_c increases from 190 °C to 212.9 °C when the content of nano Cu-ZnO is 0.5wt%.(5)At last the modified PET fiber was prepared by melt spinning process,the nano Cu-ZnO is found dispersed homogeneously in PET fiber and the particle size is between 100~200 nm.When adding 0.5wt% nano Cu-ZnO to PET,the breaking strength of fiber is 3.3 c N/dtex and elongation at break is 36.4%.The antibacterial test shows that the minimize addition of nano Cu-ZnO is 1wt% which could meet the antibacterial requirement and the antibacterial rate against E.coli and S.aureus is 90.8% and 91.2%.After 50 laundering times,the antibacterial rate against E.coli and S.aureus is 88.1% and 90.1%.