New Approach for Imparting Antimicrobial Properties for Polyamide and Wool Containing Fabrics

Abstract

Direct fiber polymer/antibiotic interaction is a promising means of providing infection resistance textile fabrics. Ionic interaction between cationic reactive groups (antibiotic) and carboxylic groups in wool, wool/polyamide, wool/polyester and polyamide was used as tools to develop desirable durable antimicrobial fabrics. The finishing conditions such as pH, finishing temperature, and time were studied. The results revealed that pH of the finishing bath and the antibiotic concentration as well as finishing temperature were very critical parameters in affecting exhaustion of the antibiotic by the fabric along with the extent of ionic interactions. Sorption of doxymycin antibiotic follows the descending order: woolwool blendspolyamide. Zone of inhibition of all treated fabrics is governed by the pH and follows the descending order: pH 6.5  pH9  pH 2.3. FTIR Spectroscopy confirmed the ionic interaction between wool 100 %, wool/polyamide (50%/50%