Amino-terminated hyperbranched polymer functionalized graphene oxide with in situ trapped silver nanoparticles for high-performance antibacterial nonwoven fabric

Antibacterial fabric with high thermal stability and mechanical strength is important for personalized protection, especially under the background of coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). This paper presents a facile approach toward high-efficient antibacterial polypropylene spunbonded nonwoven fabrics (SNFs), which are decorated by a composite of graphene oxide embedded with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs/GO) through dip-coating and in situ reduction effect of pre-introduced amino-terminated hyperbranched polymer (HBP-NH2). Typically, HBP-NH2 was grafted onto the GO nanosheets, then silver ions were trapped and self-reduced by the HBP-NH2 to generate silver nanoparticles decorated GO. The produced AgNPs are uniformly dispersed on the GO with a size of 13 nm. As an antibacterial coating, the Ag/GO composite could tightly wrap the SNFs fibers through the dip-padding method, capable of enhancing the thermal stability and mechanical property of SNFs. The treated SNFs exhibited excellent antibacterial activities (similar to 99.9%) against both Echerisia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, promising important potential for biomedical and personal protection applications.

Automated summary

This paper presents a facile approach toward high-efficient antibacterial polypropylene spunbonded nonwoven fabrics, which are decorated by a composite of graphene oxide embedded with silver nanoparticles. The treated fabrics exhibited excellent antibacterial activities, promising important potential for biomedical and personal protection applications.