Antibacterial cotton functionalized with olive oil for developing medical textiles

Abstract

To promote the use of natural antimicrobial agents and to reduce the bad environmental impact caused due to synthetic agents, a novel finishing solution of olive oil along with ethanol has been developed and then applied on cotton fabric at different concentrations by pad-dry-cure method. The finished fabrics are characterized by SEM, FTIR & TGA methods. It is found that olive oil is successfully bonded on the cotton fabric. The antimicrobial property of finished fabric is evaluated by AATCC- 147 method. The treated fabrics show excellent resistance to both E.coli and S.aureus bacteria before and after washing. As the concentration of oil is increased, the antimicrobial efficiency is found to be higher. The whiteness index of treated fabrics is decreased, due to the formation of yellow patches on the fabric surface. Several physical properties, such as mass, tensile strength and wrinkle recovery angle have been analyzed. The results show that, there is an increase in mass and wrinkle recovery angle of finished the fabric. However, there is a reduction in the tensile strength of the cotton fabric. The above findings will promote the use of natural antimicrobial agents for the production of eco –friendly and sustainable antimicrobial textiles.