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Renewable bamboo materials have broad application prospects in the fields of structural construction, insulation and acoustic management due to their multi-layer porous structure, attractive directional layout texture, ultra-fast growth rate, and excellent mechanical strength. However, the annual loss of bamboo material due to the microbial corrosion accounts for one-tenth of the total output. In this work, the hydrophobic associating hydrogel (HAH) with chitosan (CS) and zinc oxide (ZnO) has been in situ filled in the micro-nano-scale pores of natural bamboo materials to significantly enhance their anti-microbial fouling performance. It is difficult for the mildew and oxygen in the air to come into the bamboo materials due to the artificial hydrogel barrier layer. CS and ZnO nanomaterials further increase the anti-bacterial rate of bamboo composites to 100%. Based on the physical crosslinking between the polyacrylamide (PMA) of HAH hydrogel and natural bamboo fibers, CS and ZnO bacteriostatic media are not easy to be lost from the bamboo materials. The 100% anti-bacterial rate of the bamboo composite materials can be maintained for at least 56 days. Therefore, the bamboo composites have great application potential as building materials in the future. In-situ polymerization method was used to fill the micropores of bamboo with super-elastic hydrogel to enhance its anti-microbial fouling performance.

Bamboo, as a potential ecological building material, has attracted a lot of attention, due to its wide distribution, more than 1000 species, short growth cycle of 3–5 years, three times the carbon dioxide adsorption of other plants, and tensile strength comparable to steel or concrete. The major challenges of bamboo are the single color and poor anti-microbial corrosion, based on the intrinsic nature of polysaccharides such as cellulose. In this work, a novel bamboo composite material that exhibits a rich variety of colors (red wine, light yellow, coffee, white, black), excellent color retention, and anti-microbial corrosion for 14 days under a relative humidity of 60–95% is prepared by an easy-to-scale chemical grafting method. Oxidation treatment is the basic condition for bamboo to obtain bright colors, and the substitution reaction of the carbon heterocyclic ring of polysaccharide molecules is the inherent reason for bamboo dyeing. For instance, the bamboo treated with nitric acid presents a bright red wine color, and C=N, –NO2 functional groups are detected. Polyethylene glycol filled in the three-dimensional network avoids the water-soluble nutrients from emigrating to the surface of bamboo. The interruption of the continuous supply route allows the modified bamboo to obtain excellent antibacterial performance. Bright color and anti-microbial corrosion characteristics make the modified bamboo as a green building material has more potential applications.