Abstract
The purpose of this study is to improve the defects of chitosan crosslinked viscose rayon by ECH and to describe the change of hand of chitosan crosslinked viscose rayon fabrics. The chitosan crosslinked viscose rayon were manufactured by crosslinking process using ECH as crosslinking agent, 2 wt% aqueous acetic acid as a solvent of chitosan and ECH, and 20 wt% aqueous sodium hydroxide as crosslinking catalyst. Viscose rayon were first immersed in the pad bath of the mixed solution of chitosan and ECH, padded up to 100 wt% wet pick-up on weight of fiber(owf), precured on pin frames at $130^{\circ}C$ for 2 minutes, immersed in NaOH solution and finally wash and dry. Antimicrobial properties of the viscose rayon treated with chitosan were measured by the shake flask C.T.M. 0923 test method with staphylococcus aureus(ATCC 6538) as the microorganism. When the concentration of chitosan was increased chitosan crosslinked viscose rayon's LT, WT, B, 2HB and MIU were increased and G, 2HG, SMD, T and $T_m$ were decreased. On the other hand, WT, EM were decreased and RT was increased at $1{\times}10^{-2}M$ ECH. The optimum condition for crosslinking was that ECH concentration was between $1{\times}10^{-2}M\;and\;5{\times}10^{-2}M$. Antimicrobial effects of rayon fabric treated with chitosan was excellent.