Preparation and characteristics of nanocapsules containing essential oil for textile application

Abstract

Abstract Methyl methacrylate (MMA)–styrene (St) copolymer nanocapsules containing cologne essential oil for fragrant fabrics treatment were prepared by miniemulsion polymerization. The morphology, chemical composition and thermal properties were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The nanocapsules had relatively small size (ca. 136 nm of mean particle diameter), regular sphericity and uniform particle size distribution. The encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity of the nanocapsules were 85.4% and 42.7%, respectively. The nanocapsules had good thermostability. The release experiments showed that 6.8% cologne essential oil still existed after being washed 15 times in the fabrics treated with nanocapsules, indicating that the fabrics treated with nanocapsules had good washing durability. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.