Development of a Benzalkonium Chloride Based Antibacterial Paper for Health and Food Applications

摘要

Pathogenic bacteria and other microorganisms pose a potent threat to humans by causingvarious infectious diseases. To control the spread of infection, different antibacterial productshave been developed. However, most of them are known to be associated with health hazards,environmental pollution, complex fabrication, and/or higher cost. To address these issues, in thisstudy, a low cost, biodegradable and human skin compatible antibacterial paper has been developed.A quaternary ammonium compound, benzalkonium chloride (BKC) has been used for paper surfacetreatment. The concentration of aqueous solution of BKC coated on paper was varied from 0.1 wt% to0.2 wt%. No external binder was required for coating BKC onto paper. The efficacy of the coated paperwas investigated against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538 and Escherichia coli ATCC 8739 bacterialstrains. This antibacterial paper is highly effective against both strains with the concentrations ofBKC being within the allowable limit for cytotoxic effects. The optimum concentration of BKC coatedon paper can be considered as 0.15 wt%, as nearly 100% inhibition was achieved with it against bothstrains. The developed antibacterial paper is suitable for being used in the industry for disinfectionand food packaging purposes, and also by the public for hand sanitization.