Modification of viscose fabrics to impart permanent antimicrobial activity

Abstract

Viscose fabrics have been modified to enhance the attraction for nano metal oxides, namely aluminum oxide, zinc oxide or titanium (IV) oxide, to impart antimicrobial activity against <i><span style="mso-bidi-language:AR-EG" lang="EN-GB">Escherichia coli</span></i> and <i>Candida albicans</i>. Viscose fabrics are pretreated with 3-bromoprpionic acid prior to loading with nano metal oxides. Optimization of the acid concentration is reported. The overall results show a unique ability to stop microorganisms growth on the viscose fabrics pretreated with 3-bromopropionic acid and after treatment with nano metal oxides. The ability of nano metal oxide treated viscose fabrics to reduce the microbial growth is found in the following order: zinc oxide > aluminum oxide > titanium (IV) oxide. The durability of antimicrobial activity has been tested after thirty wash cycles.