Surface activation of cotton fiber by seeding silver nanoparticles and in situ synthesizing ZnO nanoparticles

The paper describes the study of the photocatatytic oxidation and antibacterial properties of cotton fabric treated with zinc oxide-silver (ZnO-Ag) nanocomposites. The ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized by an in situ approach on the surface of activated cotton fibers seeded with Ag nanoparticles. The effect of Ag nanoparticle-seeding and synthesis temperature on the morphological, thermal, photocatalytic and antibacterial properties of the ZnO Ag nanocomposite-treated cotton fibers were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry, thermo gravimetric analysis, and Attenuated Total Reflection-Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. Synthesizing ZnO nanopartictes on the surface of un-activated cotton fibers led to the formation of agglomerated nanoparticles while the Ag nanoparticle-seeded cotton fibers prevented this. The results indicated the presence of ZnO-Ag nanocomposites on the coated cotton fabrics, and all loaded samples presented an inhibition zone against S. aureus and E. coli bacteria.