Wool Fabrics with Antibacterial Properties

Abstract

Wool fabric is a suitable medium for growing bacteria under favorable temperature and humidity conditions resulting in wool degradation, skin irritation or infections. Carboxylic groups were incorporated in wool polypeptide chains by grafting acrylic acid initiated chemically with hydrogen peroxide and metallic anions of Cu2+.The mechanism of grafting is suggested, and post-treatment with two antibiotics, Neomycin (Ne) and Tetracycline hydrochloride (Te), to obtain antibacterial fibers in relation to Gram-positive and Gram-negative microorganisms. This was confirmed by measuring the inhibition zone of treated wool fabric with the above mentioned antibiotic under various conditions. The modified fabrics showed different activities in relation to the microorganisms being dependent on the type and quantity of added biocide. Post-treated wool fabric displayed excellent bacteriostatic durability on fabric after multiple washing. FT-IR spectroscopy confirmed the ionic interaction between wool and the antibiotic due to the appearance of new bands at 1650 cm−1 corresponding to amide I and band at 1520 cm−1 attributed to amide II. Wool treated with the aforementioned method showed improvement in shrinkage. Changes in surface morphology were also observed.