Grafting of ethylcellulose microcapsules onto cotton fibers

In this paper a treatment of cotton with ethylcellulose (EC) microcapsules was investigated. EC microcapsules containing Rosemary oil were obtained by phase separation method. The surface and morphology of microcapsules were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Microcapsules with a regular spherical shape in the 10–90 μm size range were prepared and grafted onto cotton using the crosslinking reagent 1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) in the presence of catalysts. The influence of the two catalysts, cyanamide (CA) and N,N′-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC) on curing efficiency (grafting) was investigated. SEM and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were used to study the formation of ester bonds between BTCA and hydroxyl groups of cotton and/or hydroxyl groups of EC. When DCC was used as a catalyst, the esterification took place slowly at room temperature. In the case of CA, the cotton was cured at 110 °C for several minutes. After 2 min curing, the microcapsules, which kept their original shape, were bonded to the cotton fibers. Increasing the curing time altered the microcapsule shell. Grafting and crosslinking reactions of the thermofixed EC microcapsules onto cotton were proposed.