N-halamines from rice straw

The cellulosic part of rice straw was modified to develop N-halamine derivatives for disinfection. The process involved cross-linking of the cellulosic material with amino/amide/imide containing compounds; cyclic and acyclic. The structures of the prepared materials were identified using FTIR and solid state (13)CNMR. The modified materials were halogenated to form N-halamines and the antimicrobial activity of each evaluated against examples of Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli) using a variety of methods; agar plate, blended agar, stirred flask and in columns. One of the N-halamines achieved a 9 log reduction against both E. coli and S. aureus in 4 h. In addition, no S. aureus growth was recorded on agar plates blended with 0.5 g of this same material.