Asymmetric wetting and antibacterial composite membrane obtained by spraying bacterial cellulose grafted with chitosan for sanitary products surface layers

The asymmetric wetting membranes have attracted intense attention in liquid directional transportation. However, it is a huge challenge to prepare surface layer membrane for sanitary products with antibacterial and asymmetric wettability by a simple method. Herein, the bacterial cellulose grafted with chitosan (BC-CS) was used as the hydrophilic agent to modify polypropylene nonwoven fabric (PPF) substrate via easy and effective one-sided layer-by-layer spraying to prepare the asymmetric wetting and antibacterial composite membrane (BCCS/PPF). It showed that the BC-CS/PPF had good physical properties, which was attributed to the strong and uniform physical combination between nano-sized BC-CS and PPF. The sanitary products with BC-CS/PPF surface layer, denoted as BC-CS/PPF sanitary products, also had good absorption and anti-return property. The antibacterial test revealed that BC-CS had an excellent performance against S. aureus and E. coli in the simulated application environment. Moreover, the antibacterial performance was better than that of commercial sanitary products.

Automated summary

In this study, an asymmetric wetting and antibacterial composite membrane (BCCS/PPF) was successfully prepared by modifying polypropylene nonwoven fabric (PPF) with bacterial cellulose grafted with chitosan (BC-CS). The BC-CS/PPF membrane showed good physical properties and antibacterial performance, surpassing that of commercial sanitary products. This novel membrane has potential applications in the production of sanitary products.