Abstract
Currently, the antimicrobial textile market is emerging and has rapidly developed to meet the inherent demands placed on public hygiene. Silver (Ag) is an efficient antimicrobial due to its direct function with the cellular membrane of probe samples. The application of Ag in the textile industry is limited due to its poor stability in repeatedly washing. In this study we synthesized a kind of novel antibacterial fiber containing nano-size silver particles in a reversed emulsion reaction system. The Ag nano-particles are incorporated onto the bamboo fibers solidly through primitive oxidation by sodium periodate. The identification, dependent on Staphylococcus aureus, was implemented to check the influence of the reaction conditions on the antimicrobial property. Meanwhile, reactive oxygen species and the leakage of cytoplasmic contents were focused on investigating the antimicrobial mechanism. The antimicrobial assay suggested that samples from inversed micelle and aqueous system own the comparative antibacterial activity. However, samples from an emulsion system could maintain a better bactericidal property than samples from an aqueous system. Meanwhile, the reactive oxygen species and ultraviolet absorption show the same trend consistent with the antibacterial result. This result might be explained by the morphology and size of Ag particles attached on cellulose surface, which was proved by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. It was revealed that the surface-to-volume ratio of Ag particles played a more crucial role in achieving higher antimicrobial activity than the mass. This approach will provide a practical solution for the synthesis of wash-durable antimicrobial substances.
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