Durable and self-adaptive cotton cellulose fabrics grafted with zwitterionic telomer brushes for anti-liquid and antifouling.

Antiadhesive cotton cellulose fabrics have attracted increasing attention in medicine, hygiene, and daily life. However, their practical applications are often limited by the insufficient bacterial antiadhesion capacity, inadequate functionality, and poor durability. To address these challenges, a novel cotton cellulose fabric grafted with zwitterionic telomer brushes consisting of fluorinated segments, zwitterionic precursors and silane coupling agent was prepared. Such fabrics exhibit environment-responsive self-adaptive performance. When used in air, the cotton cellulose fabrics are dominated by low-surface-energy fluorine motif from dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate (DFMA), resisting the adhesion of various kinds of liquid. While used underwater, the cotton cellulose fabrics transforms into the zwitterionic layer by the rapid hydrolysis of tertiary carboxybetaine triisopropylsilyl ester ethyl acrylate (TCBSi), exhibiting oleophobicity (oil contact angles underwater increased from 27° to 123°) and antibacterial functions to Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) (antibacterial efficiency >97%). Moreover, the silane coupling agent (3-mercaptopropyl trimethoxysilane, KH590) can form covalent bonds with cotton cellulose fabrics, significantly enhances the washing durability of the modified fabrics. This strategy contributes to the design and fabrication of anti-liquid and antifouling cotton cellulose fabrics for medicine, hygiene, and other fields.