Eco-friendly versatile protective polyurethane/triclosan coated polylactic acid nonwovens for medical covers application

Medical product contamination can seriously threaten patients’ health. Because of severe pollution, nonwoven medical covers still face lots of challenges, especially in terms of versatile protection performance. The application of biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) fiber has been limited by the single hydrophilicity and poor mechanical performance. Herein, a low cost and large-scale PLA/low-melt (polylactic acid) LMPLA-thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)/triclosan nonwovens was prepared through needle punch-pad-coat method. As observed as by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analyses, a membrane structure was formed on the PLA/LMPLA nonwovens surface, which dramatically improved the waterproof, antimicrobial, mechanical and abrasion resistant performance and imparted relative high breathability. By varying the stroke frequency as well as the triclosan concentration, the modified nonwovens with 0.1 wt% triclosan displayed excellent water repellency (90%), modest breathability (136.9 mm/s), robust tensile strength (12.72 MPa), and good antimicrobial performance against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Furthermore, abrasion resistant property could reach 10000 continuous abrasion cycles, up to 10-fold and 50% higher than that of the control fabric and previous reported PU nonwoven. These results are of great significance for the design of low cost, eco-friendly, sustainable, and mass production of medical products.