No abstract

Copper containing particles are of high interest to provide antibacterial activity to textiles for medical products, hygiene application or where odor formation as result of bacterial activity has to be controlled. Cu(I)oxide microparticles with a rather uniform diameter between 1.5 and 2 µ m can be prepared by controlled reduction of alkaline Cu(II)-tartaric acid complexes. Such particles can be bound to textile surfaces by means of a pigment binder system used in pigment dyeing. By a simple pad-dry process textile fabrics with a Cu-content of 250 -270 mg Cu / kg fabric could be prepared. The samples (fabrics) exhibited a reduction in viability of 100 % for Staphylococcus aureus and 84 % for Klebsiella pneumonia as estimated by the ASTM E2149 antimicrobial test. Simulated wash procedures led to a reduction in Cu-content to 60 -50 % of the initial value. Reduction in viability remained at 99 % for Staphylococcus aureus and 78 % for Klebsiella pneumoniae. The new process is of high value to impart antimicrobial properties to textile products because an antimicrobial product with good wash permanence can be delivered using rather simple processing and ordinary chemicals. Experimental Material and ChemicalsCopper(I)oxide microparticles were be bound to textile surfaces by means of a pigment binder system to provide antibacterial activity with good wash permanence, using rather simple processing and ordinary chemicals.

For outdoor sports, waterproof breathable materials are widely used to provide protection from environmental factors like rain and wind. The most important techniques to achieve excellent performance use perfluorinated organic substances, which must be replaced in the near future due to health concerns and their environmental persistency. Printing of textile materials with reactive silicone pastes could be an alternative to introduce water repellency without fluorocarbon finishing. In this work, production of barrier textiles through one-step silicon printing was studied, using a two-component paste with long pot life and a thermal fixation step. Three different knitted fabrics made from micromodal, polyamide/elastin, and cotton/polyester were used as substrates for the printing. The achieved hydrophobic modification of the fabric was analyzed by determination of water shedding angle, water resistance, water retention values, moisture content, air permeability, tensile properties, and infrared spectroscopy. The results indicate several areas of technical application for the modified fabric, such as barrier textiles with permeability control, localized modification of mechanical properties of fabric and garment.