With the growing public health awareness of the pathogenic effects and strain formations caused by microorganisms, there is an increasing need for antibacterial materials in many applications. Zinc oxide (ZnO)-1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) and ZnO-BTCA-carbon nanotube (CNT) composites were synthesized by simple stirring method. The synthesized materials were coated on cotton fabric by pad-dry-cure method separately. The coated fabrics were characterized by FT-IR analysis that revealed the cross-linking in the composites. The fabrics were screened for antibacterial activity by agar well diffusion method against gram positive Staphylococcus aureus and gram negative Escherichia coli. The results showed that the ZnO-BTCA-CNT-coated fabric has improved antibacterial activity when compared with the ZnO-BTCA-coated fabric.

A b s t r a c tCotton fabric was modified with 1,2,3,4-butane tetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) as cross-linking agent in presence of sodium hypophosphite (SHP) as catalyst. Polypyrrole-Zinc oxide (ppy-ZnO) and polypyrrole-Zinc oxide-carbon nanotube (ppy-ZnO-CNT) composites were also prepared by in-situ chemical polymerization method. The composite sol was coated on cotton fabric using pad-dry-cure technique. This coated cotton fabric was characterized by FE-SEM with EDAX, XRD, UV-DRS and FT-IR analyses. Flame retardant and UV-protection properties of the coated cotton fabric was tested and compared with uncoated fabric. ppy-ZnO-CNT composite coated cotton was found to possess better properties than with uncoated cotton.

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