Deposition of Zinc Oxide on Different Polymer Textiles and Their Antibacterial Properties

Abstract

A surface modification of polyamide 6 (PA), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene (PP) textiles was performed using zinc oxide to obtain antibacterial layer. ZnO microrods were synthesized on ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) as a nucleus centers by chemical bath deposition (CBD) process. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicated that wurzite ZnO microrods were obtained on every sample. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Liquid Absorption Capacity (LAC) analysis indicate that the amount and structure of antibacterial layer is dependent on roughness and wettability of textile surface. The rougher and more hydrophilic is the material, the more ZnO were deposited. All studied textiles show significant bactericidal activity against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). A possible mechanism and difference in sensitivity between Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria to ZnO is discussed. Considering that antibacterial activity of ZnO is caused by Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) generation, an influence of surface to volume ratio and crystalline parameters is also discussed.

Zinc Oxide for Functional Textile Coatings: Recent Advances

“…The results of the antibacterial efficiency of ZnO Ps showed that at lower concentrations, ZnO Ps were more effective against Gram-positive than Gram-negative bacteria ( Figure 5) [11,15,67,85,100], since the former are more susceptible to inhibition by ZnO Ps than the latter. However, the growth inhibition of Gram-negative bacteria significantly increased at higher ZnO concentrations and with longer contact times, resulting in excellent antimicrobial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria [84,99]. A difference in the susceptibility of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria to ZnO Ps was attributed to the difference in their bacterial wall structure [25,82].…”

“…To create antimicrobial textiles, cellulose fibers represent the most attractive textile substrate for the application of ZnO Ps [11,32,42,66,68,69,72,73,76,82,[84][85][86]88,90,[122][123][124][125][126][127]. In addition to cellulose, ZnO Ps have been applied to different synthetic fibers, such as polyester [16,99,100,128], polypropylene [15,99,129], polyamide [99], polyurethane [109] and cellulose/polyester blends [14,94].…”

“…The antibacterial activity of textile fibers has been most often tested against Staphylococcus aureus Gram-positive bacteria [14][15][16]42,67,68,72,75,76,82,94,99,126,127,129] and Escherichia coli Gram-negative bacteria [15,16,42,67,68,76,94,99,109,124,126,127,129]. In addition, testing against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) [82], Staphylococcus epidermidis [82], Propionibacterium acnes [82], Candida albicans [16,42,94,124], Bacillus subtilis [67], Pseudomonas aeruginosa [67], Saccharomyces cerevisiae [125], Gluconobacter cerinus [88], and Klebsiella pneumonia [72] has been performed.…”

“…It is believed that the more complex, multilayered structure of Gram-negative bacteria, with an outer plasma membrane, could provide greater protection against ROS in comparison to the less complex structure of Gram-positive bacteria. However, the reverse results were also presented, where a greater sensitivity of Gram-negative bacteria was attributed to their thinner cell wall peptidoglycan, which could be more easily damaged by ROS than the thicker cell wall of Gram-positive bacteria [68,99].…”

“…peptidoglycan, which could be more easily damaged by ROS than the thicker cell wall of Grampositive bacteria [68,99].…”