Nanostructured cellulose materials: Adsorption of antibiotics onto cellulose fibers functionalized with glycidylmethacrylate for the manufacturing of antibacterial fabrics

In this work we report how cotton fibers can be permanently functionalized with glycidylmethacrylate (GMA) by means of the Fenton's reaction and used for manufacturing biomedical textiles having significant capability to adsorb amoxicillin and vancomycin, two different antibiotics largely used in the clinical activity. The pristine cellulose fibers have no adsorption capability. The adsorption properties of GMA modified cotton fibers are due to their surface nanostructured by the whole of GMA appendages. The reversible adsorption capacity can be modulated by chemical treatments after the grafting of GMA on the cellulose backbone, through the epoxide ring opening by addition of water or primary diamines having different aliphatic chain length (2 to 6 C atoms). Such materials can find suitable application as wounds dressing or more in general for the topical administration of drugs.