A Facile Strategy Based on Ionic Liquids to Modulate the Antibacterial, Flame-Retardant, and Sensing Properties of Cotton Fabrics

Surface treatment of textiles causes a significant amount of environmental pollution and endowing traditional fabrics with multiple functions through facile methods remains challenging. Here a simple strategy is proposed involving the copolymerization of methacrylic acid (MA) functionalized cotton fabric (CF) with vinyl-functionalized ionic liquid (IL). The resulting CF-PIL (where P refers to poly) shows high bacteriostatic reduction rates (BR > 99%), excellent flame retardancy (LOI = 28.1%), together with high sensitivity and quick responsiveness. The CF-PIL exhibits unparalleled reliability even after 50 washing cycles. The CF-PIL-based fabric also captures signals from mechanical stimuli, humidity, and temperature. This allows the CF-PIL material to act as a sensor for physiological signal monitoring (breathing, body temperature, and external mechanical stimulation), and also for high-temperature. Through the design of a circuit, the CF-PIL-based fabric is assembled for a high-temperature fire alarm system, which can provide early warning of high temperatures when near or in contact with flames within a few seconds. While many applications of the CF-PIL may be envisaged, of particular relevance are intelligent firefighting suits and smart architectural textiles.