Novel porous chitosan/N-halamine structure with efficient antibacterial and hemostatic properties

In this work, a novel chitosan based structure (CS/EVC) with low density, high porosity, three-dimensional porous structure and great adsorption capability has been prepared by using 1,2-epoxy-4-vinyl cyclohexane (EVC) as a cross-linker. After immersing CS/EVC in N-halamine 1-chloro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-4-imidazolinone (MC) solution, antibacterial CS/EVC/MC compounds were obtained. Compared with chitosan and CS/EVC controls, CS/EVC/MC showed excellent antimicrobial activities, which could inactivate both more than 6 logs (×1/1,000,000) of Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538) and Escherichia coli (ATCC 8099) within 30 and 10 min, respectively. Moreover, the relatively low blood clotting index of CS/EVC/MC and the activation of platelets adhering to the surfaces indicated that the CS/EVC/MC sample is potential to promote the agglutination abilities of blood cells and simultaneously control wound bleeding. In addition, in vitro cytotoxicity test showed that the CS/EVC/MC had no cytotoxicity. The material might thus have a great potential for biomedical applications.