Abstract There are some drawbacks such as the propagation and spread of bacteria and viruses during the use of normal paper. Therefore, this work designed a starch styrene-acrylic antibacterial emulsion for improving the paper properties. The modified antimicrobial monomer was prepared by the subject-object recognition of β-cyclodextrin with hydrophobic modified titanium dioxide. The antibacterial performance of prepared emulsion was tested by Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus. And the mechanical properties of the modified paper were measured according to the national standards. The results showed that the antibacterial emulsion has excellent comprehensive performance with the viscosity of 1750 mPa·s, the inhibition ring diameter of 11.82 mm, the good chemical stability and storage stability. Therefore, the proposed cationic starch styrene-acrylic antibacterial emulsion has promising applications in paper surface modification.