The possibilities of obtaining active soybeancotton fabrics were examined. An effective two-stage method was developed. The first stage involves the formation of dialdehyde cellulose by the sodium periodate oxidation of cotton fabrics, which is able to form Schiff base with soybean protein. In the second stage, soybean grafted cotton fabrics were prepared by subsequent treatment of oxidized cotton fabrics with a solution of soybean protein in aqueous acetic acid. The technical conditions of oxidized cotton fabrics with soybean protein graft were studied, the internal structure and wearability of oxidized cotton fabric after soybean protein treatment were respectively measured and analyzed in this paper. The results of infrared spectra indicated that the C=N of chemical bond was formed between the aldehyde groups in oxidized cotton fabrics and the amino groups of soybean protein, and the soybean protein cross-linked on the surface of oxidized cotton fabrics by a series of reactions. Meanwhile, the calculating results on the separating peaks and imitating curves of X-ray diffractive curves illuminated that the crystallinity of the oxidized cotton fabric after soybean protein modification decreased from 67.83% to 62.35%. After soybean protein treatment, the breaking strength and elongation of the fabrics slightly decreased, whereas the wrinkle recovery angle and moisture absorption of cotton fabrics remarkably increased.
