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A heightened need to control the spread of infectious diseases prompted the current work in which functionalized and innovative antimicrobial tissue paper was developed with a hydrophobic spray-coating of chitosan (Ch) and cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) composite. It was hypothesized that the hydrophobic nature of chitosan could be counterbalanced by the addition of CNC to maintain fiber formation and water absorbency. Light-weight tissue handsheets were prepared, spray-coated with Ch, CNC, and their composite coating (ChCNC), and tested for antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli and a microbial sample from a human hand after using the rest room. Water absorption and strength properties were also analyzed. To activate the surface of cationized tissue paper, an oxygen/helium gas atmospheric plasma treatment was employed on the best performing antimicrobial tissue papers. The highest bactericidal activity was observed with ChCNC-coated tissue paper, inhibiting up to 98% microbial growth. Plasma treatment further improved the antimicrobial activity of the coatings. Water absorption properties were reduced with Ch but increased with CNC. This "self-disinfecting" bactericidal tissue has the potential to be one of the most innovative products for the hygiene industry because it can dry, clean, and resist the infection of surfaces simultaneously, providing significant societal benefits.

We report a method for the bottom-up fabrication of paper-based capillary microchips by the blade coating of cellulose microfibers on a patterned surface. The fabrication process is similar to the paper-making process in which an aqueous suspension of cellulose microfibers is used as the starting material and is blade-coated onto a polypropylene substrate patterned using an inkjet printer. After water evaporation, the cellulose microfibers form a porous, hydrophilic, paperlike pattern that wicks aqueous solution by capillary action. This method enables simple, fast, inexpensive fabrication of paper-based capillary channels with both width and height down to about 10 μm. When this method is used, the capillary microfluidic chip for the colorimetric detection of glucose and total protein is fabricated, and the assay requires only 0.30 μL of sample, which is 240 times smaller than for paper devices fabricated using photolithography.

Paper-based analytical devices are the subject of growing interest for the development of low-cost point-of-care diagnostics, environmental monitoring technologies, and research tools for limited-resource settings. However, there are limited chemistries available for the conjugation of biomolecules to cellulose for use in biomedical applications. Herein, divinyl sulfone (DVS) chemistry was demonstrated to immobilize small molecules, proteins, and DNA covalently onto the hydroxyl groups of cellulose membranes through nucleophilic addition. Assays on modified cellulose using protein-carbohydrate and protein-glycoprotein interactions as well as oligonucleotide hybridization showed that the membrane's bioactivity was specific, dose-dependent, and stable over a long period of time. The use of an inkjet printer to form patterns of biomolecules on DVS-activated cellulose illustrates the adaptability of the DVS functionalization technique to pattern sophisticated designs, with potential applications in cellulose-based lateral flow devices.

This work investigates the effect of gold nanoparticle (AuNP) addition to paper substrate and examines the ability of these composite materials to amplify the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) signal of a dye adsorbed. Paper has a three-dimensional (3D), porous, and heterogeneous morphology. The manner in which paper adsorbs the nanoparticles is crucial to its SERS properties, particularly with regards to aggregation. In this work, we sought to maintain the same degree of aggregation, while changing the concentration of nanoparticles deposited on paper. We achieved this by dipping paper into AuNP solutions of different, known concentration and found that the initial packing density of AuNPs in solutions was retained on paper with the same degree of aggregation. The surface coverage of AuNPs on paper was found to scale linearly to their concentration profile in solutions. The SERS performances of the AuNP-treated papers were evaluated with 4-aminothiophenol (4-ATP) as the Raman molecule, and their SERS intensities increased linearly with the AuNPs' concentration. Compared to AuNP-treated silicon, the Raman enhancement factor (EF) from paper was relatively higher due to a more uniform and greater degree of adsorption of AuNPs. The effect of the spatial distribution of AuNPs in their substrates on SERS activity was also investigated. In this experiment, the number of AuNPs was kept constant (a 1 μL droplet of AuNPs was deposited on all substrates), and the distribution profile of AuNPs was controlled by the nature of the substrate: paper, silicon, and hydrophobized paper. The AuNP droplet on paper showed the most reproducible and sensitive SERS signal. This highlighted the role of the z-distribution (through film) of AuNPs within the bulk of the paper, producing a 3D multilayer structure to allow inter- and intralayer plasmon coupling, and hence amplifying the SERS signal. The SERS performance of nanoparticle-functionalized paper can thus be optimized by controlling the 3D distribution of the metallic nanoparticles, and such control is critical if these systems are to be implemented as a low-cost and highly sensitive bioassay platform.

A morphologically complex cellulosic substance (e.g., commercial filter paper) was employed as a substrate for DNA immobilization and successive recognition. A uniform ultrathin zirconia gel film was first deposited on each cellulose nanofiber in bulk filter paper by a facile sol-gel process. Relying on the large surface area of filter paper and the strong affinity of zirconia for the phosphate group, terminal-phosphate probe DNA was abundantly immobilized on the zirconia-modified filter paper so as to convert the composite to a biofunctional material for the sensitive and repetitive recognition of the corresponding complementary target DNA on the nanomolar level. By contrast, in spite of the viability of the immobilization of the probe DNA and the recognition of target DNA on the quartz plate, the amount of captured probe DNA or recognized target DNA on such a flat substrate was much less than that captured or recognized on filter paper, resulting in a relatively insensitive recognition event. Moreover, control experiments on bare filter paper (without a zirconia nanocoating) suggested that the zirconia gel film was essential to probe DNA immobilization and subsequent target DNA recognition.