Low-cost ZIF-67-modified fabrics with effective photothermal disinfection for antimicrobial personal protective equipment production

Abstract

Aerosol-based transmission contributes to infection by various pathogens. Consequently, it is urgent to design antimicrobial personal protective equipment (PPE) and address the potential biological contamination of discarded PPE. We report a novel ZIF-67-modified PP fabric for photothermal disinfection; our work provides a fast, one-step, and low-cost preparation approach for incorporating zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) nanoparticles (NPs) onto polypropylene (PP) fabric. First, we prepared ZIF-67-water NPs and ZIF-67-methanol NPs using relevant solvents and characterized them by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and field-emission scanning electron microscopy. We then used only ultrasonication to prepare ZIF-67-modified fabrics by incorporating ZIF-67 NPs onto PP fabric with a 0.5－1.5 mg/cm2 loading rate (18.5－40.5 wt%). The ZIF-67-modified fabrics were subjected to the same characterization, and then they were evaluated for photothermal performance, hydrophobicity and antimicrobial ability. The fabric of ZIF-67-water@PP-1.5 was selected to repurpose an antimicrobial mask. We demonstrated that the ZIF-67-modified fabrics have excellent photothermal performance with near-infrared (NIR) radiation and exhibit increased hydrophobicity, which is determined by the loading rate of ZIF-67 NPs. The surface temperature reached and maintained peak levels (70 °C and 90 °C) with NIR radiation, whilst the highest contact angle was over 140°. The photothermal behaviour could kill over 99.9% of gram-negative and gram-positive drug-resistant bacteria, whilst the haemolytic behaviour was less than 5%. The repurposed mask retained controllable photothermal properties. The application of these fabrics not only addresses the demand for affordable antimicrobial PPE but also contributes to reducing potential biochemical threats in discarded PPE.