Antibacterial Treatment of Cotton Fabrics using Methylisothiazolinone

Abstract

The prevailing study is an attempt to utilize Methylisothiazolinone (MIT) which was applied efficiently in other applications away from fabric finishing fields such as preservation and health care. A certain concentration of the substance were applied to the scoured woven cotton fabric , the use of distinct methods of treatment which includes Exhaustion and pad-dry-Thermo-fixation. The results obtained showed that using pad-dry-Thermo-fixation gave better nitrogen content more than exhaustion method, subsequently we continued the work using padding method which gave more anti-bacterial conduct . Furthermore, by varying the different factors influencing the reaction such as MIT's concentration (10-50 mg/l or ppm), curing time (1-10 min.) and curing temperature (120-170°C) the study reached the optimum conditions to get the best anti-bacterial treatment for cotton fabrics against gram positive bacteria(Staphylococcus Auras) and gram negative bacteria ( Escherichia Coli) . FT-IR spectroscopy, Antibacterial test according to (AATCC) and SEM were used to assure the obtained results.