## 1 Introduction  
In recent years, several technologies have been developed for modifying cotton blends and cotton as multi-functional textiles. Surface modification of cotton fabrics can impart wrinkle free finishes, self-cleaning properties, anti-microbial activity, UV protection, and flame retardancy [1,2]. Self-cleaning features include stain release and stain repellent or resistant finishes [3]. The latter of these, acts to block the uptake of the blemishing agent. Liquids like coffee, soda, oil and water, bead up on fabric when spilled and can be wiped off without staining the fabric. In contrast, a stain release fiber coating may allow oil and aqueous staining materials to penetrate the fabric and then, when the fabric is laundered, ideally enables the stain to be easily removed.  
Fluorochemical coatings dominate the stain repellency textile apparel market. Out of all existing textile chemicals, only fluorochemicals have shown the unique property to provide fabrics a sufficiently low surface energy coating able to resist penetration of both oil and water-based stains (polar and non-polar liquids). Unfortunately, fabrics modified with fluorochemicals by conventional textile finishing methods often show poor performance with laundering or wear [4].  
Application of perfluorochemicals can be accomplished in a variety of ways, many of which impart hydrophobicity and/or oleophobicity to fabrics in addition to other desirable properties. Scientists at the German Textile Research Centre North West, for example, obtained a hydrophobic coating of perfluoro-4-methylpent-2-ene by photonic surface treatment with a pulsed UV-laser [1]. Similarly, pulsed plasma polymerization of monomers with long perfluoroalkyl chains by [PERSON] and co-workers yielded a hydrophobic thin film coating [5]. Superhydrophobic mats have been prepared with initiated chemical vapor deposition involving polymerization of perfluoroalkylethyl methacrylate [6] while [PERSON] and co-workers used initiated chemical vapor deposition to coat electrospun non-woven fabrics, also with superhydrophobic character [7]. In a very different approach, direct fluorination of twaron fiber with elemental fluorine not only changed the nature of the fiber surface, it also increased mechanical and thermal properties of a fiber composite [8]. Sol-gel methods have been successfully employed to impart oil/water repellency and anti-bacterial capability to cotton using fluorocarbon polymer/SiO\({}_{2}\) and silver nanoparticle-doped silica hybrid materials, respectively [9,10]. Lastly, nanoparticles of fluorochemical coated silica and of gold have been applied to cotton and other fabrics to create a chemically inert fiber surface with superhydrophobic properties [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16]. This broad range of approaches reflects the interest and challenges in this area.  
Admicellar polymerization is an in situ polymerization reaction proceeding within surfactant aggregates formed at the interface between the substrate and a supernatant solution. The technique, a surface analogue of emulsion polymerization, has been used to form a variety of polymeric thin films on different solids such as polystyrene and poly methyl methacrylate over silica and alumina [17, 18, 19, 20]. Recently, admicellar polymerization has been expanded into the textile area with application of finishes to impart functionality like flame retardancy, blocking of UV radiation, and water repellency [21, 22, 23]. This method is a simple, water-based process using low energy and a small amount of chemicals. Since the thickness of the film formed is typically on the order of nanometers to tens of nanometers, the fabric surfaces retain softness and feel.  
In this paper we examine the use of admicellar polymerization to prepare knit type cotton fabric with stain release/stain resistant features. The fluoropolymer finishes are characterized by standard and improvised test methods and compared to commercially available stain release/stain resistant fabrics for performance and durability.