SILVER BASED ANTI‐ 

MICROBIAL FINISHING ON 
COTTON  

By:
P. Aravin Prince,
and
G. Myvizhirajeswari
 SILVER BASED ANTI-MICROBIAL FINISHING
ON COTTON
ABSTRACT:
The benefits to science and society from Nanotechnology are substantial. If the criterion is to
produce very minute particle size fibres and materials the nano technology is the only way to
achieve the same. This article elucidates about the silver based anti microbial finishing on
cotton fabric.

WHAT ARE MICROBES?

Microbes are the tiniest creatures not seen by the naked eye. They include a variety of micro-
organisms like Bacteria, Fungi, Algae and viruses. Bacteria are uni-cellular organisms which
grow very rapidly under warmth and moisture.

ANTI-MICROBIAL FOR GARMENTS:

The main reason for treating garments with antimicrobial control of perspiration odours. As
the bacteria reproduced they give off gases which are familiar perspiration odour. Treating
fabric with anti microbial means, that bacteria which have been transferred from the skin or
the environment do not reproduce in the fabric. The reduction in bacteria means the volume
of gas given off will be much smaller than an odour will not develop.

NECESSITY OF ANTIMICROBIAL FINISHES:

Antimicrobial treatment for textile materials is necessary to fulfil the following objectives:
To avoid cross infection by pathogenic micro organisms;
To control the infestation by microbes;
To arrest metabolism in microbes in order to reduce the formation odour; and
To safeguard the textile products from staining, discolouration and quality
deterioration.

SILVER BASED ANTI MICROBIAL:

Among the various antimicrobial agents used for the finishing of textile substrates, silver or
silver ions have long been known to have strong inhibitory and bacterial effects as well as a
broad spectrum of antimicrobial activities. The inhibitory effect of silver ion/ silver metal on
bacteria has been attributed to the interaction of silver ion with thiol groups in bacteria as
well as to the oxidative destruction of micro organism in aqueous medium. Silver ion based
antimicrobial finishes have been developed by the interaction of a silver salt such as silver
nitrate with anionic co polymer of styrene, ethyl acrylate , acrylic acid and divinyl benzene
having at least support about 0.008 meter equal of carboxylic group per gram of polymer and
≥ 0.0009 mol of silver per gram of the polymer. The films of such polymeric finishes release
anti bacterial and anti fungal silver ions slowly over a very long period of time.
In another patent, it is disclosed that a silver containing anti microbial agent that has affinity
for textile fibres can be produced by treating cross- linked carboxyl methyl cellulose having
greater than 0.4 carboxyl methyl group with silver nitrate. The anti microbial finishing agent
may have 0.01 to 1 % silver bound to the water resistant cross linked CMC (Ag.)

Milliken & company has developed a silver antimicrobial agent. That name is Alphasan™ by
forming a complex of silver with zirconium phosphate. Other silver containing antimicrobial
are silver substituted zeolite available from sinanen under the trade name Zeomic™ AJ, and
silver subsisted glass available from the Ishizuka glass under the trade name Ionpore™. This
compound can be applied on the fabrics by exhaustion with a dye solution. The antimicrobial
fabric thus produced on finishing with and acrylic co polymer makes the antimicrobial finish
more durable.

Another method of producing durable silver containing antimicrobial finish is to encapsulate

a silver compound is nano particle with a fibre reactive polymer. The resulting micro nano
capsules when applied to a fabric, reactive with it and thus provide durable silver based anti
microbial finish. The micro encapsulation of the nano particles may be carried out in different
ways. For instance, for producing micro capsules of water soluble products, the product may
first be dissolved in water and subsequently emulsified after adding an emulsifier and oil
soluble encapsulating monomers or oligomer or polymers. On polymerization and cross-
linking, the resulting shell encapsulate the water soluble product. One of the fibre reactive
polymers used for this purpose is poly (styrene co –maliec anhydride).

Yang has patented the a process for

preparing a silver nanoparticles containing
functional microcapsule having the
intrinsic antimicrobial and therapeutic
functions of silver as well as additional
functional of the products contained in the
inner core of the capsule. Such
microcapsule can be prepared by a two-
step process. In the first step an emulsified
solution of a perfume is encapsulated with
melanin precondensate. The microcapsule
so produced is treated with silver
nanoparticle dispersed in water-soluble Fig: 1 Structural view of a Silver nano
styrene maleic anhydride polymer solution particle containing functional
before it fully dries. Thus microcapsules microcapsule
with duel function are produced. In these (a). Microcapsule (b). Inner core contains
microcapsules, the silver nanoparticles are functional substance such as perfume, a
on the surface of the capsule (Fig. 1), thermo sensitive pigment, thermal storage
Instead of a perfume, one can have a material or pharmaceutical preparation
thermo sensitive pigment, thermal storage and (c). Inner shell.
material or pharmaceutical preparation in
the inner core.
In a chemical reduction method of producing highly concentrated stable dispersions of nano
sized silver particles; silver nitrate is reduced with ascorbic acid to precipitate metallic silver
in acidic solutions according to following reaction:

2Ag+ + C6H8O6 ←→ 2Ag0 + C6H6O6 + 2H+

Anti microbial fabrics made from cotton, linen, silk, wool, polyester, nylon, or their blends
having nano silver particles can be produced by immersing them in nano silver particle-
containing solution producing by reducing silver nitrate with glucose and drying at 120 0 to
1600C for about 40 – 60 min. The treated fabrics were yellow orange colour. Electron
microscopic studies of the antimicrobial fabric indicate that the fabric samples contained
nano silver particles which were evenly distributed and contained particles that were mostly
bellow or about 10 nm size. Chemical testing indicated that the silver content in the fabrics
was about 0.4-0.9 % by weight. The treated fabrics showed effect anti microbial activity
against various bacteria, fungi, Chlamydia, that included.

Silver-containing antimicrobials have been incorporated into wound care devices and are
rapidly gaining acceptance in the medical industry as a safe and effective means of
controlling microbial growth in the wound bed, often resulting in improved healing. It is
known that placing surface- available silver in contact with a wound allows the silver to enter
the wound and become absorbed by undesirable bacteria and fungi that grow and prosper in
the warm moist environment of the wound site. Once absorbed, the silver ions kill microbes ,
resulting in treatment of infected wounds or the prevention of infection in at risk wounds.
Some of the commercial silver antimicrobial wound care products are Acticoat™, Actisorb™
And Silverlon™.

ADVANTAGE OF SILVER CONTAINING ANTI MICROBIAL

Generally silver based antimicrobial have more advantages compare to other antimicrobial
agents, there are given bellow. Control of a wide range of bacteria perspiration by consumer
as very safe able to withstand temperature of 400 to 5000 C for polymer applications;

Silver based antimicrobials works in three ways and a bacterial cell

i) Reaction with thiol groups on proteins and enzyme

ii) Interference with DNA & RNA functionality

iii) Modification of the plasma membrane of the cell

Because there are three separate modes of activity, it is difficult for a bacterial cell to develop
resistance to silver based antimicrobials. It is almost impossible for a cell to adapt to all three
methods of attack.
CONCLUSION:
Generally silver based antimicrobial agents have more cost compare to other antimicrobial
agents but it have more desirable properties like durability, very good control of a wide
range of bacteria perspiration and etc, so now people are more considering about the quality
rather than any other things like cost ,etc of the products, so these silver based anti-microbial
finished materials will going to take very good place in future days.

REFERENCES:
1) http://www.clinicalservicesjournal.com/Default.aspx
2) http://www.japoncorp.net/article.asp?art_ID=11589

3) ML Gulrajani / nano finishing /IJF&TR/ Pp197-199

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Aravin Prince. P. has completed Diploma in Textile Processing (Sandwich) from SSM
Institute of Textile Technology, Erode, and Tamilnadu. Later, he worked with MS Dyeing,
Tirupur, and T.N as a production supervisor. After completing his Bachelors he then joined
Texport syndicate (I) Ltd., Bangalore, as a Production Planning Executive and currently he is
working as a Lecturer in A.J.K.K.S.A.Polytecnic College, Gobi, Erode, and TN.

Myvizhirajeswary.G. started her carreer with Bachelor of Technology in Textile Technology

in PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore. After completion of degree she joined as a
Lecturer in SSM Institute of Textile Technology, komarapalayam, Erode, T.N.