Cellulose nonwoven with fast liquid-discharging and anti-return properties: A microplastic-free surface layer for disposable absorbent hygiene products

Nowadays, the waste of non-biodegradable disposable absorbent hygiene products (DAHPs) has become one of the biggest solid waste in landfills. In this work, the cellulose nonwovens (CNW) were adopted to develop fully biodegradable, microplastic-free surface layer for DAHPs. To achieve this goal, the high hydrophilicity and lack of antibacterial properties were tackled by simultaneously grating tert-butyl isocyanate (TBIS) and anchoring nano zinc oxide (nano-ZnO) on the CNW substrate via a two-step process. The urethane groups formed between cellulose and TBIS strongly coordinates with nano-ZnO, pivotally constructing a cellulose-based surface with moderately-high hydrophobicity with a water contact angle (WCA) of 139.7°, superior antibacterial rates (>90 % against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus), an excellent air-permeability (2621 mm·s−1) and a good breaking strength (66.9 N·5cm−1). Compared with the commercial sanitary products, the assembled sanitary product with laser-meshed cellulose surface exhibits an even faster liquid discharging ability (<5 s) and an excellent anti-liquid-return property (>96 %). This innovative, functional cellulose-based fabric holds immense potential for application as sustainable, and microplastic-free surface layer of DAHPs.