Antibacterial activated carbon fibre derived from phenolic resin fibre by use of co-graftpolymerization

Abstract

Phenolic-resin fibre was co-graftpolymerized with methyl methacrylate and methacrylic acid. The weight of the fibre increased by 26% after grafting. The grafted fibre was soaked in silvernitrate solution to introduce silver ion on methacrylic acid in the graft by an ion-exchange reaction, followed by carbonization at 900 °C for 30 min under a nitrogen stream and activation at 900 °C under a steam stream. After activation for 40 min, the resulting fibre showed a silver content of 8.3 wt% a specific surface area of 1300 m²g⁻¹ and antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The average crystallite size of the silver in this fibre was 30 nm, which suggests co-graftpolymerization is a useful technique to disperse fine silver particles in the activated carbon fibre. After soaking in flowing tap water for 10 and 20 days, this activated carbon fibre lost about 50 wt% of silver but kept its antibacterial activity.