Antibacterial activity of cellulose fabrics modified with metallic salts

This paper deals with the effect of a metallic salt treatment on the antibacterial activity of cellulosic fabrics against three kinds of bacteria: gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), gram-negative bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae), and methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Two kinds of cellulose fabrics are treated with the metallic salts CUSO4 and ZnSO4. The fabrics are pretreated with succinic acid anhydride to make adsorption of metallic salts more effective. This pretreatment is very effective at increasing the amount of metal ions adsorbed, and is more prominent in Cu ion than in Zn ion. The degree of antibacterial activity of samples treated with Cu salt against one of the S. aureus increases with an increasing amount of adsorbed Cu ion. A similar tendency is observed for the samples treated with Zn salt, although its correlation is not as clear as for Cu ion. Antibacterial activity is also confirmed against K. pneumoniae. The degree of antibacterial activity of samples treated with Cu salt against MRSA is almost independent of the amount of Cu ion adsorbed, and the tendency is similar for samples treated with Zn salt. After ten laundering cycles, the effect of the treatment is maintained. We conclude that these treatments are very effective in providing antibacterial activities to cellulose fabrics.