Surface self-assembly via one-pot polymerization to construct high-strength and antibacterial polyethylene fabric

Abstract

An increasing number of hospital-acquired infections (HNIs) confirms the urgency of medical protective fiber material (MDPF), which possesses high strength, low toxicity and excellent hydrophobicity and is considered as an effective method to deal with HNIs. However, the current performance of MDPF mainly relies on a single physical barrier mechanism, and pathogenic and contagious bacteria or virus attached on the surface barrier layer are one of the important paths for secondary infection. Therefore, research on the fabrication of highly effective antibacterial MDPF is of great significance for preventing contagious infections. Herein, high-strength, environment-friendly and antibacterial PE@PDA@ZnO-Ag (PE@PDAZA) nonwoven fabric was successfully prepared through a simple one-pot coating method. The functional fabric exhibits antibacterial rate up to 99.9 % against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) with low amount of antibacterial agent additions. Moreover, the fabric exhibits tested tensile strength of 35.4 ± 2.9 MPa. This work provides a new strategy for preparing high-strength and automatically-protective MDPF, which can reduce hospital-acquired contagious infections through a simple post-treatment process and has great potential for large-scale production.