ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 outbreak has seen the widespread use of personal protective equipment, especially antibacterial fibers. In this work, ionic liquid (IL) is used as a solvent to fabricate antibacterial fibers combining plant essential oils (PEOs) with cellulose. PEOs are buried in microcapsules first or mixed directly with IL-cellulose spinning dopes to prepare a series of composite fibers. The internal structures, surface and cross morphologies, thermal stability, mechanical properties, antibacterial activity, washing stability, and biocompatibility of these fibers are investigated and analyzed in-depth further. Artemisia microcapsule fiber (AMCRCF) with a break strength of 30.07 MPa is obtained. Besides, the antibacterial activity rates of AMC-RCF against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus are 89.8 and 97.8%, and the fibers still have a long-lasting antibacterial effect after 30 standard washes. Furthermore, the antibacterial fibers exhibit excellent biocompatibility. This research provides a green approach for the fabrication of the antibacterial fibers with long-lasting antibacterial activity and good biocompatibility.