Cellulose Acetate Nanofibrous Membranes for Antibacterial Applications

N-halamine antibacterial materials have been extensively explored over the past few decades due to their fast inactivation of a broad spectrum of bacterial and rechargeability. Electrospun nanofibers loaded with N-halamines have gained great attention because of their enhanced antibacterial capability induced by the larger specific surface area. The patents on electrospun nanofibers (US20080679694), (CN2015207182871) helped in the method for the preparation of nanofibers.

In this study, a novel N-halamine precursor, 3-(3'-Chloro-propyl)-5,5-dimethylimidazolidine- 2,4-dione(CPDMH), was synthesized. Antimicrobial electrospun Cellulose Acetate (CA) nanofibers were fabricated through impregnating CPDMH as an antimicrobial agent into CA fibers by the bubble electrospinning. The surface morphologies of CA/CPDMH nanofibrous membranes were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).

The chlorinated fibrous membranes (CA/CPDMH-Cl) exhibited effective antimicrobial activity against 100% of S. aureus and E. coli O157:H7 within 1 min and 5 min, respectively. The CA/CPDMH-Cl nanofibrous membranes showed good storage stability under the dark and excellent durability towards UVA light exposure. Meanwhile, the release of active chlorine from the chlorinated nanofibrous membranes was stable and safe. Besides, the addition of CPDMH could improve the mechanical property, and chlorination did not obviously affect the strength and elongation of the nanofibrous membranes.

CPDMH could endow the electrospun CA nanofibers with powerful, durable and regenerable antimicrobial properties. It will provide a continuous and effective method for health-care relative industrial application.