Polyethylenimine surface layer for enhanced virus immobilization on cellulose

Thin regenerated cellulose films are prepared by hydrolysis of cellulose acetate (CA). A polycation, namely polyethylenimine (PEI), is then adsorbed onto the films. From QCM-D analysis, PEI readily adsorbs from a 0.1% w/v solution in NaCl 0.2 M (ca. 100 ng cm−2). Further PEI adsorption steps at higher PEI concentrations induce a linear growth of the PEI films, suggesting that free adsorption sites still exist after the initial adsorption. The adsorbed PEI chains are resistant to variations of the ionic strength up to NaCl 1 M. Promisingly, the adsorption of T4D bacteriophages are 15-fold more efficient onto the PEI-treated, compared to the native regenerated cellulose films, as measured by QCM-D. This confirms the strong affinity between the negatively charged viruses and PEI, even at low PEI concentration, probably governed by strong electrostatic attractive interactions. This result explains the remarkable improvement of the affinity of medical masks for virus droplets when one of their cellulose layers was changed by two-PEI-functionalized cellulose-based filters.