Simultaneous sonochemical-enzymatic coating of medical textiles with antibacterial ZnO nanoparticles

Abstract

The antimicrobial finishing is a must for production of medical textiles, aiming at reducing the bioburden in clinical wards and consequently decreasing the risk of hospital-acquired infections.This work reports for the first time on a simultaneous sonochemical/enzymatic process for durable antibacterial coating of cotton with zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs). The novel technology goes beyond the "stepwise" concept we proposed recently for enzymatic preactivation of the fabrics and subsequent sonochemical nano-coating, and is designed to produce "ready-to-use" antibacterial medical textiles in a single step. A multilayer coating of uniformly dispersed NPs was obtained in the process. The enzymatic treatment provides better adhesion of the ZnO NPs and, as a consequence, enhanced coating stability during exploitation. The NPscoated cotton fabrics inhibited the growth of the medically relevant Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli respectively by 67 % and 100 %. The antibacterial efficiency of these textile materials resisted the intensive laundry regimes used in hospitals, though only 33 % of the initially deposited NPs remained firmly fixed onto the fabrics after multiple washings.

Synthesis of CuS and ZnO/Zn(OH)2 nanoparticles and their evaluation for in vitro antibacterial and antifungal activities

“…Microbial infections are a growing problem in contemporary medicine, and the use of antibiotics is common across the world. Antimicrobials are among the most commonly purchased drugs worldwide . Health problems demand a novel class of effective antimicrobial compounds to be more resistant against pathogenic microorganisms than the current antibiotics .…”

Sonochemical synthesis and stabilization of concentrated antimicrobial silver‐chitosan nanoparticle dispersions

“…The latter includes the preparation of amorphous nanoarchitectures, insertion of nanoobjects into mesoporous materials, deposition of nanoparticles on functional surfaces, and formation of soft nano/micro‐spheres . In our previous studies, the sonochemistry was used to transform polysaccharides, proteins, phenolic compounds, and synthetic antibiotics into bioactive NP for a broad range of medical and cosmetic applications …”

Enhancement of Antibacterial Capability of Cotton Textiles Coated with TiO2–SiO2/Chitosan Using Hydrophobization

“…Textiles with enhanced resistance against microorganisms (e.g., antibacterial and antimicrobial textiles) have been widely investigated in recent years since they are utilized for various applications such as in medical devices, health care, hygiene, water purification systems, hospitals, and dental surgery equipment . Therefore, several methods to improve the antibacterial capability of textiles have been proposed and are still being devised …”