Effect of Dimethyl Sulfoxide in Hydrophobic Modification of Cotton Filter Cloth by ARGET-ATRP Mechanism

In this paper, Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was used in the activating process of cotton filter cloth to improve its further hydrophobic modification reaction between cotton fabric and 1-octadecene via an electron transfer (ARGET) atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) mechanism. The major influences of DMSO on ARGET-ATRP process was discussed, and meanwhile, the microstructure changes, morphology feature and performance characteristics of cotton filter cloth during the reaction was explored by the SEM, AFM, EDS, XRD and TGA techniques.The result shows that DMSO can leads to cotton fibers adhesion and surface roughening under the ARGET-ATRP grafting reaction conditions, but has little changes on the crystal form, crystallinity and thermal properties of cellulose. At a DMSO dosage of 10%, the hydrophobically modified cotton filter cloth has a water contact angle (CA) of up to 141°. While naturally placed for 1 hour, the CA of hydrophobically modified cotton filter cloth can be stable at 116° with a decay rate of 17.5%, which proves that the hydrophobic stability of cotton filter cloth has been improved markedly. Furthermore, a better improvement for the hydrophobic stability of cotton filter cloth will significantly enhance the application of hydrophobic functional modified cellulosic materials.