Antibacterial finishing for textiles

Different approaches for the production of antibacterial fabrics have been developed using natural and polymer biocides with the aim of reducing the leaching of biocidal agents to the environment. One consists in the modification of cotton fabrics with natural small molecule biocides (e.g., citric acid) bound to fiber surface. An other approach involves the deposition of chitosan followed by UV-curing on fabrics. The last method deals with in-situ polymerization on fibers and fabrics of a positively charged conjugated polymer (i.e., polypyrrole). The treated fabrics showed excellent (>97%) antibacterial properties against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria following standard test methods (AATCC 100, ASTM E 2149-01).