Strategies and applications for incorporating physical and chemical modifications for functional Cellulose based materials

Highly functional and added-value cellulose based polymer and textiles have a considerable number of advantages and attractiveness from a technological point of view. The demand for tailored surface modifications for water repellence, long-term hydrophilicity, enhanced adhesion, antibacterial properties, is under mounting investigation. Modification is used to induce deliberate change in nanoscale composition or structure of textile surfaces and to improve different properties. Nevertheless, the considerable structural and chemical complexity, and their properties must be taken into account for the implementation of surface modification, for improving the properties of cellulose based materials as new applications of cellulose based materials emerge, especially in the fields of biotechnology, bioengineering, and most recently in nanotechnology. Different approaches can be classified by two principal routes, namely chemical and physical functionalization methods to improve wettability, adhesion and other material properties.' Different methods have been used for the introduction of new functional groups or compounds onto synthetic and natural textiles, i.e. plasma treatment, sol-gel process, dip-coating, spray coating, pad-batch and layer by layer method. The challenge is, however, an ideal modification that eliminates all the negative properties and preserves all the positive properties of the fibres. In this chapter considerable attention will be given to the advances made in surface treatment to alter chemical and physical properties of cellulose based surfaces without affecting bulk properties. This chapter also cover treatments for water and oil repellency of textiles, engineering of biomedical textiles and finishing techniques.