Embedding medical and hygiene products with regenerable antimicrobial functions would have significant implications for limiting pathogen contaminations and reducing healthcare-associated infections. Herein, we demonstrate a scalable and industrially feasible methodology to fabricate chlorine rechargeable melt-blown polypropylene (PP) nonwoven fabrics, which have been widely used in hygienic and personal protective products, via a combination of a melt reactive extrusion process and melt-blown technique. Methacrylamide (MAM) was employed as a precursor of halamine monomers and covalently grafted onto the PP backbone to form polypropylene-grafted methacrylamide (PP-g-MAM), which could be chlorinated, yielding biocidal acyclic halamines. Subsequently, the resultant PP-g-MAM was manufactured into nonwoven fabrics with varying fiber diameters by adjusting the hot air flowing speed during the melt-blowing process. The chlorinated nonwoven fabrics (PP-g-MAM-Cl) exhibited integrated properties such as a robust mechanical property, good thermal stability, high chlorination capability (>850 ppm), and desirable chlorine rechargeability. More importantly, such chlorinated nonwoven fabrics showed a promising antibacterial and antiviral efficiency, achieving 6 log CFU reduction of bacteria (both Escherichia coliO157: H7 and Listeria innocua) and 7 log PFU reductions of a virus (T7 bacteriophages) within 15 and 5 min of contact, respectively, revealing great potential to serve as a reusable antimicrobial material for medical protection applications.
Keywords: N-halamine; antiviral; melt graft polymerization; polypropylene nonwoven; rechargeable antimicrobial.