Antimicrobial Finishing of Polypropylene Nonwoven Fabric by Treatment with Chitosan Oligomer

摘要

Water-soluble chitosan oligomer was prepared for finishing polypropylene nonwoven fabrics to impart antimicrobial activity.The weight average molecular weight was 1814 and its degree of deacetylation was 84%.Polypropylene nonwoven fabrics were treated with chitosan oligomer solution by the pad-dry method.Antimi-crobial activity was measured by the shake flask method.The chitosan oligomer showed high antimicrobial activities against Proteus vulgaris,Staphylococcus aureus,and Escherichia coli at 0.01% and 0.05% level,respectively,showing above 90% of reduction rate.Chitosan oligomer was the most effective against Proteus vulgaris.However,it was not effective against Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa below the treatment concentration of 1.0%.Fabrics became stiffer and less air permeable with the increase of treatment concentration.Tensile strength of the treated samples was lower than that of the untreated one.Liquid strike-through time of the sample treated with 0.5% chitosan oligomer solution (3.0s) was comparable with that of a hydrophilic finished sample available commercially (2.6 s).