Environmentally friendly and antimicrobial bilayer structured fabrics with integrated interception and sterilization for personal protective mask

Personal protective mask (PPM) is becoming an effective and convenient apparatus to protect people from harmful air contaminant caused by air pollution and highly infectious respiratory disease. Most of the available PPM can barely possess high capture efficiency towards particulate matters (PMs) and antibacterial activity. Herein, an environmentally friendly and bilayer structured fabric with timely bactericidal efficacy was fabricated through the recombination of silver/zinc two-sides sputtered cotton (SAg/ZnC) and polylactic acid/polycaprolactone (PLA/PCL) composite nanofibers (CNF). A hydroelectricity stimulation was touched off inside the CNF@SAg/ZnC fabric profiting from the external water vapor and then the fabric was given antimicrobial function. The resulting CNF@SAg/ZnC fabric possess intriguing characters, such as high filtration efficiency towards PM0.3 (> 99%) with the airflow rate fixed at 85 L/min(-1), good antibacterial activity, favorable cell viability, excellent bactericidal ratio against Escherichia coli (99.33%) and Staphylococcus aureus (99.19%) when contact with bacteria for 20 min, and long-lasting durability (> 12 h). This work is solely up to the requirements of biodegradable and high-performance media for public health protection, making it a good choice of multifunctional personal protective equipment.

Automated summary

A environmentally friendly and bilayer structured fabric with antimicrobial efficacy was fabricated through the recombination of silver/zinc two-sides sputtered cotton and polylactic acid/polycaprolactone composite nanofibers. The resulting fabric demonstrated high filtration efficiency, good antibacterial activity, excellent bactericidal ratio, and long-lasting durability. This study provides a biodegradable and high-performance personal protective equipment for public health protection.