Preparation and controllable release of chitosan/vanillin microcapsules and their application to cotton fabric

Abstract

ABSTRACT The textile industries have incorporated perfume microencapsulation technology to improve their products. However, certain industrial microcapsules show low encapsulation capacity and low material stability. In this study, vanillin/chitosan microcapsules were prepared via spray‐drying, and the encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity of the microcapsule were 50.69% and 30.31%, respectively. Quantum–chemical calculations confirm the interactions of hydrogen bonds between vanillin and chitosan. Their applicability to the cotton fabric with citric acid as the cross‐linking reagent has been investigated. The structure of the microcapsule‐treated cotton fabric has been characterized with various physico‐chemical techniques. The results confirm the microcapsules have been successfully grafted onto the cotton fabrics. The release experiments show that 21.9% vanillin was retained under 65°C and 80% humidity conditions and 8.6% vanillin still existed after 14 washes. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.