Cellulose-based Fluorescent Antibacterial Materials

Abstract The abuse of antibiotics has led to a rapid increase in the resistance of bacteria and the environmental pollution. Attenuating the bactarial membrane and metabolism by functional celluloses is an effective strategy to find bacteriostatic agents as replacers of traditional antibiotics. Herein, a novel fluorescent cellulose (CEL-THPP) was synthesized by the covalent coupling of cellulose with porphyrin derivatives (THPP). The coordination of Zn (II) ion with CEL-THPP induced the self-assembly of CEL-THPP producing CEL-THPP@Zn with near-infrared light absorption. CEL-THPP@Zn is a porous rod-like structure cellulose. CEL-THPP@Zn exhibits strong fluorescence emission at 662 nm in solid and the optical band gaps was 1.69 eV. Moreover, CEL-THPP@Zn have excellent inhibitory and adsorption effects on both Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Therefore, this study provides a novel solution for cellulose surface modification, and the CEL-THPP@Zn can be applied to bacterial inhibition and filtration.