Antimicrobial Properties of [2-(Acryloyloxy)Ethyl]-Trimethyl Ammonium Chloride and Maleic Anhydride Surface Grafted-Cotton Fibers Hazna Sartiva 1 , Diana Adnanda Nasution 2 and Basuki Wirjosentono 2* 1 Postgraduate Chemistry Study Program, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jl. Bioteknologi No. 1 Kampus USU, Medan, Indonesia 2 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jl. Bioteknologi No. 1, Medan 20155, Indonesia Keywords: Cotton Cellulose, Surface Modification, Aspergillus Niger, Staphylococcus Aureus, Antimicrobial Fibres. Abstract: Antimicrobial compound of [2-(acryloyloxy)ethyl]-trimethyl ammonium chloride (AETAC) can be bound into polymer backbones to produce various antimicrobial polymeric materials. In this work, cotton cellulose (CCell) fibres was modified in a laboratory scale reflux-reactor for 2 hours in toluene (TL) as solvent with addition of maleic anhydride (MA). TL solution of antimicrobial compound of AETAC and ammoniumpersulphate (NH4)2S2O8) as initiator was added dropwise and the reflux was further continued for 2 hours. The reaction mixture with optimum weight ratio (CCell/MA/AETAC: 100/20/20) was then cooled down, filtered and wash thoroughly using distilled water and dried in oven vacum to constant weight at 80 o C. The AETAC/MA-modified Cellulose (AETAC/MA-g-CCell) was then characterised using infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for chemical structure identification of the reaction products. Antimicrobial properties of the modified cellulose was tested using: Aspergillus niger and Staphylococcus aureus. Results of FTIR spectra of the AETAC/MA-g-CCell after exhaustive Soxhlet extraction in toluene still showed stable absorption peak of AETAC/MA carbonyl group (>C=O) at 1736 cm -1 and dissapearance of bond absorption peak of acryloyl group (>C=C<) at 1470 cm -1 . The AETAC/MA-modified cotton cellulose showed marginal antimicrobial activity against Aspergillus niger, however the modified cellulose showed excellent antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus. 1 INTRODUCTION Cotton being globally distributed across Asia, North America and Western Africa. According to data from the International Cotton Advisory Committee in 2015 more than 80 countries around the world plant cotton, mostly in Asia and America. More than half of the clothes people wear are made of cotton fiber, because it is can used to make a soft-textile (Yanjun, 2019). One of the problems in the use of natural fiber- based textile product such as cotton is the growth of insect and microorganism, such as bateria and fungi. Natural fiber such as cellulosic and protein-based ones are more danger because of the chemical bonds that may easily be broken down by microorganism. Cotton fabrics are suitable matrices for the growth of fungi, particularly Aspergillus niger. Some studies have been worked by gamma irradiation for inactivation of Aspergillus niger in aged cotton (Donna, 2019). Cellulose has three ractive hydroxyl group per anhydroglucose repeating unit that form and inter- and intramoleculer hydrogen bonds. These bonds strongly influence chemical reactivity of cellulose (Wasilla, 2010). Modified cotton cellulose was studied widely as antimicrobial agent. The monomer (3-acrylamidopropyl) trimethylammonium chloride was used to treat a cotton fibers by grafting copolymerization. Antimicrobial properties was run by transferring oxidative chlorine to their cells and then further oxidizing the cellular systems and causing the expiration of cells (Ying, 2014). Besides that compound, there was also [2(acryloyloxy)ethyl]-trimethyl ammonium chloride (AETAC) used as antimicrobial agent. In previous work, researcher studied chemical modification of Sartiva, H., Nasution, D. and Wirjosentono, B. Antimicrobial Properties of [2-(Acryloyloxy)Ethyl]-Trimethyl Ammonium Chloride and Maleic Anhydride Surface Grafted-Cotton Fibers. DOI: 10.5220/0008934103190323 In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Chemical Science and Technology Innovation (ICOCSTI 2019), pages 319-323 ISBN: 978-989-758-415-2 Copyright c  2020 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved 319