Morphological, antimicrobial, durability, and physical properties of untreated and treated textiles using silver-nanoparticles

Silver nanoparticles are often applied to textiles for their strong antimicrobial activity and potential uses in various applications. The treatment of fabrics with silver nanoparticles has often involved complex or expensive processes, required surface post treatment, lacked durability and altered desirable properties related to the comfort of the fabric. In this paper, a systematic study has been performed to identify a simple yet durable and economical approach to apply silver nanoparticles on cotton fabrics with minimum alterations to the fabrics' physical properties. An ex situ chemical and in situ photo reduction approaches of silver-nanoparticle treatment on cotton fabrics were investigated, comparing the morphology, antimicrobial, durability of the treatment after wash and physical properties. Results indicate that the in situ approach was favorable toward aforementioned requirements and could retain its properties close to the original fabric. Methodology presented here to study effects of ex situ and in situ treatments of silver nanoparticles on textiles could be of interest to other applications.