Investigation of silver ion release from the nanosilver based antibacterial textiles

In this work, first of all antibacterial finishing chemical, whose active agents was calcium phosphate based silver doped antibacterial powder synthesized by wet chemical method, was produced. Commonly used nanosilver based commercial antibacterial finishing chemicals were purchased. These chemicals and produced finishing chemical were applied to % 100 cotton and % 100 polyester fabrics. Antibacterial activity of treated fabrics were tested. In addition to this, the effects of factors among which are chemical structure of active agents, the type of silver compound used in active agents, behaviours of chemicals on treated textile surface, releasing mechanism of chemicals, the amount of silver released from antibacterial fabrics during laundering process, relation of antibacterial activity and contained quantity of silver were studied. Acid digestion of treated fabrics were carried out by using microwave sample preparation unit. Silver release quantity from fabrics was determined by using Inductively Coupled Plazma (ICP). Surface characterization of treated fabrics and chemicals were conducted by scanning electron microscope. Antibacterial tests of treated fabrics were carried out due to ASTM-E2149 standards against E.coli (25922).