A Hierarchical Porous Cellulose Sponge Modified with Chlorogenic Acid as a Antibacterial Material for Water Disinfection

Water contaminated by microorganisms will seriously endanger public safety, as many diseases are caused by microorganisms, and water disinfection materials offer an effective method to solve this problem. In this work, a hierarchical porous structure cellulose sponge (CS) was constructed as the water disinfection filter substrate, where “long−chain” cellulose served as the skeleton to construct major pores, and “short−chain” cellulose filled the gaps between “long−chain” cellulose to construct minor pores. After CS was covalently modified by chlorogenic acid (CGA) to fabricate cellulose–chlorogenic acid sponge (C−CGAS), a hierarchical porous structure was retained. Due to the hierarchical porous structure, C−CGAS showed good mechanical stability (2.84% unrecoverable strain after 1000 compression cycles). Furthermore, C−CGAS also showed good antibacterial and antifungal abilities due to the antimicrobial ability and high water flux, and C−CGAS could eliminate 95% of E. coli within 0.5 h in the water disinfection test. Due to the stable covalent modification of CGA and its mechanical stability, C−CGAS showed no breakage, and even after nine consecutive use cycles, the antibacterial properties were almost unchanged. Thus, C−CGAS is a reusable and highly efficient water disinfection material. This study provides a new approach for the preparation of recyclable, safe, and efficient water disinfection materials.