Production of Disposable Antibacterial Textiles Via Application of Tea Tree Oil Encapsulated into Different Wall Materials

In the present paper, it was aimed to produce disposable antibacterial textile surfaces with applications of TTO capsules having different wall materials. For this purpose, tea tree oil (TTO) was encapsulated into beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and Arabic gum (GA), and the prepared capsules were characterized with scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses. The capsules, which were proved that they had been prepared successfully by the analyses, were applied to the 100 % viscose nonwoven fabric surfaces by padding method at the concentration of 20 % (w/v). The treated fabric samples were characterized through SEM and FTIR analyses, as well as the antibacterial activities of the samples were evaluated against E. coli and S. aureus bacteria. The results indicated that the TTO/beta-CD, TTO/PVA and TTO/GA capsules could be successfully applied onto textiles and the samples gained antibacterial activity properties at the different levels depending on the wall materials.