Development of breathable and liquid/microbes barrier woven surgical gowns for hospital usage

Abstract

An attempt has been made to develop a breathable woven surgical gown with antimicrobial and liquid repellent properties by finishing with nanoparticles of silver and fluorocarbon using pad-dry-cure method. Box-Behnken design has been used to optimize the coating parameters, i.e. concentrations of nanosilver (NS), nanofluorocarbon (NFC) and binder. The selected coating parameters has decisive influence on the fabric properties, such as air permeability, moisture vapour permeability, antimicrobial and tensile behaviour. The optimum coating parameters such as concentrations of NS, NFC and binder result in improved air permeability and moisture vapour permeability of the fabric for 3 g/L of NS and 40 g/L of NFC. The antibacterial activity of fabric is found to be higher for increased NS concentration and lower for increased NFC. In case of tensile properties of coated fabrics, the increase in NS concentration increases the tensile strength and decreases the bending modulus of fabrics.