High-efficiency antibacterial and barrier properties of natural rubber/graphene oxide@Ag/carboxymethyl chitosan composites

Natural rubber (NR) latex gloves serve as a very important barrier protection for health care workers. It is of great significance to study the barrier and antibacterial properties of NR latex products. Herein, a small amount of graphene oxide (GO) with in situ grown silver (Ag) nanoparticles was self-assembled in the NR latex by carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS) as a cross-linking agent to form a novel NR/GO-Ag-CMCS composite with three-dimensional filler networks. The filler networks in the NR/GO-Ag-CMCS composite were formed by a strong interfacial interaction between NR macromolecules and GO-Ag-CMCS hybrids. The tensile strength and tear strength of NR/GO-Ag-CMCS composite were higher than those of pure NR film. With the increase of GO content, the filler network of NR/GO-Ag-CMCS film tended to be more complete and its barrier was stronger. Moreover, the NR/GO-Ag-CMCS composite showed excellent antibacterial performance against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). The minimal inhibitory concentration values of GO-Ag-CMCS hybrid to E. coli and S. aureus were 8 and 16 μg/mL, respectively. For the NR/GO-Ag-CMCS composite with 0.1 phr GO, the diameters of its inhibition zone were 15.6 mm for E. coli and 13.6 mm for S. aureus.