The efficacy of surfactants in stabilizing coating of nano-structured CuO particles onto the surface of cotton fibers and their antimicrobial activity

Abstract

The efficacy of surfactants in stabilizing CuO-NPs onto the surface of the cotton fibers and their ability to produce homogeneous CuO-coated cotton composite was studied using different types of surfactants. The use of surfactants provides better adhesion of the CuO NPs and consequence, enhanced its coating stability during exploitation. The optical structure and morphology of the coated cotton fabrics were examined by several methods include: X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform spectroscopy (FTIR). The CuO-NPs-coated cotton fabrics have resisted the intensive 10 washing cycles in particular, in presence of SDS (25% loss of CuO) in comparison with TX-100 (66.5% loss of CuO). The CuO-NPs coated cotton materials have also showed an excellent inhibition for the growth of the medically relevant staphylococcus aureus and escherichia coli respectively by 91% and 95% using SDS and HY.