Stereochemical Strategy Advances Microbially Antiadhesive Cotton Textile in Safeguarding Skin Flora

Microbial contamination on cotton textiles (CT) negatively affects people's health as well as the textile itself during use and storage. Using antimicrobial CT in a body-safe manner is currently still a challenge because it is difficult to balance killing microbes and protecting skin flora. Herein, a borneol-decorated CT (BDCT) through coupling of borneol 4-formylbenzoate molecules onto the amino-modified CT is reported. This BDCT shows strong and broad-spectrum microbially antiadhesive activities against gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus and S. epidermidis), gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa), and fungi (Aspergillus niger, Mucor racemosus, and Candida albicans). Because of its unique stereochemical microbial antiadhesion mechanism, BDCT is harmless to skin flora. In addition, BDCT exhibits prominent durability of microbially antiadhesive capability by bearing 50 times of accelerated laundering. Therefore, this stereochemical BDCT strategy shows great potential for applications in the new generation of textiles, food packaging, and medical protection.