Structure and Properties of Cationic Chitosan Derivative Modified Bombyx mori

Abstract Cationic modification of silk fabric can highly improve its antibacterial property, but cationic modification may change the microstructure of silk fiber, and further affect its properties, thus O-methyl acrylamide quaternary ammonium salt of chitosan (NMA-HTCC), which is a kind of strong cationic chitosan derivative, was used for the modification on Bombyx mori silk fiber. The combination structure between NMA-HTCC and silk fiber was characterized by FT-IR. The surface morphology and structure of silk fiber after being treated by NMA-HTCC were investigated by SEM and XPS analysis. The crystalline structure and thermal stability of silk fibers before and after being treated were determined by XRD and DSC analysis, respectively. Then the breaking strength, breaking elongation and antibacterial properties of the silk yarns were also determined. The results indicated that the NMA-HTCC modified silk fiber clearly showed two characteristic absorption peaks at 1535 cm-1 and 1670 cm-1 due to the N-H bending and C=O stretch of the secondary amide in the acrylamidomethyl group of the NMA-HTCC molecule. The successful combination of NMA-HTCC and silk fiber was also confirmed by XPS and SEM analysis. Compared with the untreated silk sample, the diffracted intensity of the characteristic absorption peak and crystallinity of the NMA-HTCC modified silk fiber were both increased; the internal aggregation structure of the silk fiber treated with NMA-HTCC was much closer and its thermal stability was enhanced obviously. The breaking strength and elongation of silk fibers after being treated with NMA-HTCC were also significantly increased. Silk fibers treated with NMA-HTCC had excellent durable antibacterial properties against S. aureus and E. coli, even after 50 repeated launderings, with the bacterial reduction rate of the silk fibers maintained at over 95 %. The results in this research can provide the theoretical basis for the application of NMA-HTCC in the modifications of silk fabric.