The study of cellulosic fabrics impregnated with porphyrin compounds for use as photo-bactericidal polymers.

In the present work, we report on the preparation of cellulosic fabrics bearing two types of photo-sensitizers in order to prepare efficient polymeric materials for antimicrobial applications. The obtained porphyrin-grafted cellulosic fabrics were characterized by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance UV-Vis (DRUV) spectroscopy, thermo-gravimetric analysis (TG) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Antimicrobial activity of the prepared porphyrin-cellulose was tested under visible light irradiation against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomunas aeroginosa and Escherichia coli. In addition, the effect of two parameters on photo-bactericidal activity of treated fibers was studied: illumination time and concentration of photosensitizers (PS).