Robust ZIF-8/alginate fibers for the durable and highly effective antibacterial textiles

Antibacterial fibers have great potential in many applications, such as medical dressings, surgical sutures and masks, etc. owing to their good growth inhibition against bacteria. However, for the fabrication of antibacterial fibers, the traditional inorganic nanoparticles coating method shows the disadvantages of high cost, low stability and binding fastness. Herein, we develop a facile, scalable and cost-effective blend spinning strategy to fabricate the highly effective antibacterial zeolitic imidazolate framework-8@alginate (ZIF-8@SA) fibers through wet spinning of the mixture of ZIF-8 and SA. The fabricated ZIF-8@SA fibers show high antibacterial efficiency, good durability and high tensile strength. The antibacterial performance of ZIF-8@SA fibers is superior to the most reported inorganic nanoparticles modified fibers. The excellent antibacterial performance of ZIF-8@SA fibers is attributed to the reactive oxygen species from the ZIF-8 and the swelling of SA. This work may shed light on the antibacterial mechanisms of metal organic frameworks and pave the way for the development of high-performance, durable and highly effective antibacterial textiles.