Fabricating multifunctional PLA textiles with advanced respiratory detection and environmental safety

Currently, polylactic acid (PLA) is an attractive alternative to polypropylene (PP) because of its biodegradability.This study introduces a novel modification strategy for PLA by creating a multifunctional ionization layer with ionic salts.This approach achieves humidity sensing, reliable antibacterial properties, and excellent degradability simultaneously.The modified PLA textile sensor exhibits high sensitivity to respiratory humidity (0.92 at 90% RH), with ultrafast response (0.12 s) and recovery times (0.16 s).Additionally, the textile demonstrates excellent antibacterial performance against both E. coli (99.9%) and S. aureus (99.9%) after 1 h of contact.It also shows notable biodegradability with a weight loss rate of 60.38% after 30 days.Also, the ionic salt mechanism is explained through dynamic ionization interactions attributed to the modified ionic salts, which feature both long-chain alkanes and active ions.This work presents a new method to enhance the respiratory detection and antibacterial performance of biodegradable masks.