High-efficacy antimicrobial cellulose grafted by a novel quaternarized N-halamine

A novel quaternarized N-halamine precursor (3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl)-(5, 5-dimethylhydantoinyl-1-ylmethyl)-dimethylammonium chloride (CDDAC), has been synthesized by a very facile two-step reaction. The two-step synthesis of CDDAC occurred at room temperature with common reactors, so the production of CDDAC could be easily enlarged to an industrial scale. Without any work-up, the final reaction solution which contained CDDAC could be directly used as grafting solution. CDDAC could be effectively grafted onto the surface of cellulose by a dehydrochlorination reaction. CDDAC grafted on cellulose was converted to N-halamine structure which showed powerful antimicrobial property by a chlorination reaction in the diluted NaClO solution. The antimicrobial tests showed that the chlorinated cellulose grafted with CDDAC was capable of 5-log inactivation of S. aureus and E. coli within 5 min. Also, the washing durability and storage stability of chlorinated cellulose grafted with CDDAC were investigated.