A novel and green cellulose-based Schiff base-Cu (II) complex and its excellent antibacterial activity

Cellulose-based materials are widely used in the biomedical field. However, the lack of antibacterial activities of cellulose fibers inevitably causes bacterial infection damages. In this study, Schiff base was first introduced to endow the cellulose fibers good antibacterial property and copper ions were complexed with Schiff base to form a complex. The prepared complex greatly enhanced the antibacterial properties of the cellulose fibers. FT-IR, XRD, UV–vis and SEM-EDS results proved the successful synthesis of Schiff base and its copper (II) complex. The antibacterial tests indicated that the width of the inhibition zone of the as-prepared cellulose-based Schiff base-Cu (II) complex against E. coli and S. aureus increased by 472 % and 823 %, respectively, in comparison to the Schiff base ligand. This significant increase could be attributed to the incorporation of the copper ions (II). This Schiff base-Cu (II) complex containing cellulose-based antibacterial materials are expected to be widely used for biomedical application.