Cationic b-cyclodextrin polymer (CPbCD) and its complexes with butylparaben and triclosan were reported in this paper. 2D NMR confirmed that the host-guest complexes were formed by including antibiotics inside the cavities of CPbCDs, which significantly improved the water solubility of the antibiotics. Results of inhibition zones and shaking flask methods of antimicrobialmodified cellulose fibres showed that both antibiotics/ CPbCD complexes had excellent antimicrobial activities when applying on the cellulose fibers whereas triclosan appeared to more effective. Morphology of untreated and treated bacteria revealed by AFM suggested that the antibiotics/CPbCD complexes inhibited bacteria through affecting the metabolism of the bacteria instead of damaging the cell membrane. Due to the strong electrostatic association, CPbCD polymers adsorbed on the surface of cellulose fibres almost completely within the range of dosages investigated.
In this work, an antimicrobial guanidine polymer (PHGH) was grafted onto starch as a carrier to form branched or grafted chains along the starch backbone. This grafting improved the antimicrobial properties and the adsorption of the starch on recycled cellulose fibers. Similar work was also conducted on bleached sulfite fibers for comparison. The results showed that the starch, grafted with 12 wt% PHGH, adsorbed more on recycled fibers than on sulfite fibers. By applying the antimicrobial-modified starch to recycled or sulfite pulps up to 20 mg/g, both antimicrobial and antimold performances of the papers were improved substantially. Additionally, the PHGH-modified starch increased the tensile index of papers, but decreased the tear index slightly. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were employed to investigate the morphologic changes of Escherichia coli bacteria and Chaetomium globosum fungi upon exposure to the PHGH-modified starch, thus demonstrating that the antimicrobial mechanism is based on the damage of bacterial membrane.
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