Surface nano-engineering of cellulosic textiles for superior biocidal performance and effective bacterial detection

In medical, healthcare, and packaging industries, antibacterial textiles are widely used. However, contamination of textiles with bacteria can result in exclusive cross-infection. To address this issue, we devised an engineering strategy for creating organic–inorganic hybrid layers on the surface of fiber materials by combining MXene quantum dots (MQDs) with highly efficient antimicrobial agents, endowing the textiles with dual functions of bacterial killing and monitoring. Surface-functionalized MQDs were anchored on the surface of cellulose nonwovens (CNWs) by hydrogen bonding (MQDs@CNWs), followed by immobilization of Ni2+ ions by metal affinity coordination (Ni@MQDs@CNWs). In the last step, the antimicrobial compounds with catechol moieties were coordinated with Ni2+ to produce the modified textile named as NCA@Ni@MQDs@CNWs. Fluorescence (FL) recovery experiments demonstrated that NCA@Ni@MQDs@CNWs had differential FL recovery ability after exposure to pathogens with different concentrations indicating its ability for bacteria monitoring. Moreover, NCA@Ni@MQDs@CNWs exhibited excellent bactericidal efficiencies of >99.99% against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) in a 30-min. This work presents a novel approach for design and fabrication of biocidal textiles with ability of sensing bacteria.