Aqueous Antibacterial Enhancement Using Kapok Fibers Chemically Modified in 3-D Crosslinked Structure

The surface of a kapok fiber was coated with Dopamine (DOPA) through a three-dimensional (3-D) polymerization. Such surface-modified kapok fiber was useful in deactivating microbial activity of microorganisms such as bacteria. The morphology of the surface-modified kapok fiber was analyzed with a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). After a silver coating process along with DOPA functionalization, a strong antibacterial property was observed against Escherichia coli (E. coli), using a direct contact method. Almost 100% of bacterial cells were deactivated in 4 h, also showing a complete hindrance to a bacterial growth for 48 h. With the help of the images of FE-SEM and its analysis, the mechanism of an antibacterial assay was enlightened and reasonably estimated that silver ions from the poly-DOPA-coated kapok fiber with silver (KF-DOPA/Ag) led to alterations of cell morphology. This 3-D composite successfully interacted in vitro with functional groups in terms of bacterial deactivation.