Deodorant activity of phthalocyanine complex nanofiber

Abstract

Unpleasant odor is a problem in the modern lifestyle. In order to prevent malodor, we fabricated phthalocyanine combined with nanofibers to prevent unpleasant odor for the first time. Cu-coordinated phthalocyanine was used as an odor preventing agent and methyl mercaptan gas was selected as a model malodorant. This study was conducted with two different polymers, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and silk. A total of 4 wt% of phthalocyanine was incorporated in the solutions of both polymers, resulting in the successful fabrication of nanofibers. It is notable that the deodorant activity test clearly showed a reduction of methyl mercaptan gas in both phthalocyanine incorporated PVA and silk nanofibers. In addition, the phthalocyanine/silk nanofibers exhibited better deodorant performance in comparison to the phthalocyanine/PVA nanofiber.