Impact of carboxylation and hydrolysis functionalisations on the anti-oil staining behaviour of textiles grafted with poly(-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogel.

Novel hydrogel-modified textiles have been prepared through photografting poly(-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) onto pristine and functionalised polyethylene terephthalate (PET) surfaces. In this work, two types of functionalisation, carboxylation (CPET) and hydrolysis (HPET), were performed to scrutinise the hydrogel grafting efficiency. Basic characterisation of the pristine, functionalised and grafted textiles was carried out fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) analyses.