Phenol Formaldehyde Resole/Nanosilver Colloid Immobilized Polyester Textile Composite for Antibacterial Applications

Abstract

This work reports the fabrication of an antibacterial phenol formaldehyde (PF)/silver (Ag) nanocomposite coated polyester fabric material for industrial coating applications. Spherical Ag nanoparticles (NPs), with an average particle size of 20 nm were uniformly distributed in the PF resole resin. The polymer nanocomposites with different percentages of Ag NPs (0.2 %, 0.4 %, and 0.6 %) have been coated on polyester fabric by a hand layup procedure. The fabric samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X‐ray analysis (EDAX) and X‐ray diffraction analysis. The thermal properties of samples have been investigated by differential scanning calorimetry and thermo‐ gravimetric analysis. The effect of Ag NPs on the adhesion features of resole resin coated polyester fabric was evaluated by the peel strength measurement. The optimized composite showed excellent antibacterial properties against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli bacteria. All the resole PF/Ag nanocomposite coated polyester fabrics are biocompatible. It has been proposed for a variety of applications in the fields of apparel, architecture and construction, insulation, automotive and chemical processing.