Immobilization of First Generation Donor-Acceptor Stenhouse Adducts onto cotton fabrics

Abstract

This thesis reports on a procedure to immobilize first generation Donor-Acceptor Stenhouse Adducts onto cotton fabrics using a two-step approach. The DASAs immobilized on cotton showed a color changing property, between pink and colorless, with reversibility upon heating. Under visible light and humidity exposure, the color variations of DASA cotton fabrics were fitted by a function, deltaE*(t)=a(1-e-bt). The experiments indicated that water in the air was the dominant factor in inducing the linear-to-cyclic DASA isomerization, while the visible light still played a minor role. Adding water directly onto a DASA cotton resulted in a pink-to-brown color change which reversed back to pink upon heating. Since the introduction of DASAs, several research groups have applied DASA compounds onto a myriad of surfaces -- ours is the first report of the incorporation of DASAs into a textile substrate.