Designing multifunctional cotton fabrics based on dipentaerythritol pentaacrylate-branched poly(ethyleneimine) (5Acl-BPEI) reactive coating

The application of functional textiles in our daily life is expanding increasingly. However, manufacturing, designing, and developing mild but efficient functional textiles remains a challenge. In this work, a straightforward method to construct functional cotton fabrics (CF) with superhydrophobicity and antibacterial activity using dipentaerythritol pentaacrylate-branched poly(ethyleneimine) (5Acl-BPEI) reactive coating as the secondary reactions layer and subsequently treating with bis(3-aminopropyl)-terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS-NH₂) and 1-(12-(mercaptododecyl)-3-methylimidazolium bromide (MDMIBr). The obtained CF@5Acl-BPEI@PDMS-NH₂ showed integrated performances with hydrophobic behavior (water contact angle of 151.7 ± 0.8° and sliding angle of 8.8 ± 0.9°), self-cleaning, excellent efficiency in oil–water separation (above 99.4%). Additionally, the oil flux remained consistently high, exceeding 4000 L m⁻² h⁻¹ after 10 cycles in various oil–water mixtures and it remained stable under various harsh conditions. And the prepared CF@5Acl-BPEI@MDMIBr significantly enhances the antibacterial properties of textiles, exhibiting a bacteriostatic rate of 99%. In addition, the air permeability, whiteness and thermal stability of CF after coating and surface modification have no obvious changes. These results indicate that the 5Acl-BPEI coating serves as a versatile platform for the development of various functional materials, providing invaluable insights into coating modification.