Silver nanoparticles loaded thermosensitive cotton fabric for antibacterial application

Cotton fabric with improved antibacterial properties is always invited for effective use in wound dressing and healing applications. In this study, poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) network has been produced in situ in porous cotton cellulose fabric by photo polymerization using UV-radiation. The thermoresponsiveness of the resulting fabric has been used to entrap silver nanoparticles with the fabric. The presence of silver nanoparticles in the fabric has been characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and dynamic light scattering analysis. The fabrics have been found to possess fair mechanical properties. The individual and aggregation particle size of the silver nanoparticles was found to be in the range 13-20 nm and 140-220 nm. This aggregation phenomenon was also confirmed by dynamic light scattering measurement, i.e. 256 nm. The silver nanoparticles exhibits polydispersity index 0.18 and zeta potential -2.86 mV. The fabric exhibited fair biocidal action against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, thus indicating its possible utility in medicinal application.