Abstract
Paper documents and products are very susceptible to microbial contamination and damage. Fungi are mainly responsible for those biodeterioration processes. Traditional microbicidal strategies constitute a serious health risk even when microbes are dead. Ideal methods should not be toxic to humans and should have no adverse effects on paper, but should own a broad spectrum, good chemical stability and low cost. In this work, we utilize an advanced antimicrobial strategy of surface stereochemistry by applying a coating of a shallow layer of polyborneolacrylate (PBA), resulting in the desired antifungal performance. The PBA-coated paper is challenged with the most common air-borne fungi growing on paper, Aspergillus niger and Penicillium sp. Ten percent by weight of the coating concentration or a 19-μm infiltration of PBA is sufficient to keep the paper spotless. The PBA coating also exhibits significant inhibition of spores’ germination. After PBA coating, both physicochemical properties (paper whiteness, pH, mechanical strength) and inking performance display only slight changes, which are acceptable for general utilization. This PBA coating method is nontoxic, rapid and cost-effective, thus demonstrating great potential for applications in paper products.
Highlights
Paper documents and products are very common in our daily life
Almost no sporangia or hypha were found and only a few scattered spores could be found on the surface of paper coated with 10 and 15% of PBA (Figure 4C,D). These results further proved the above speculation: paper coated with PBA had good antifungal activity, and the coating concentration of 10% was sufficient to ensure the antifungal capacity
The results indicated that the PBA coating did not cause any immediate alteration of pH on the paper samples, statistically
Summary
Paper documents and products are very common in our daily life They are very susceptible to microbial contamination and damage under inadequate conservation conditions due to their organic composition and hygroscopicity [1]. Our group has successfully developed a series of borneol-based polymers [23,24] where polyborneolacrylate (PBA) showed unique antibacterial adhesion properties. They dramatically reduced bacterial attachment and biofilm formation. In this paper, we present PBA polymers as antifungal coatings by applying them to paper products through the spraying method. The related changes in the paper’s physicochemical properties and inking performance are assessed
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