1 research outputs found
Aqueous Zinc Compounds as Residual Antimicrobial Agents for Textiles
Textiles,
especially those worn by patients and medical professionals, serve
as vectors for proliferating pathogens. Upstream manufacturing techniques
and end-user practices, such as transition-metal embedment in textile
fibers or alcohol-based disinfectants, can mitigate pathogen growth,
but both techniques have their shortcomings. Fiber embedment requires
complete replacement of all fabrics in a facility, and the effects
of embedded nanoparticles on human health remain unknown. Alcohol-based,
end-user disinfectants are short-lived because they quickly volatilize.
In this work, common zinc salts are explored as an end-user residual
antimicrobial agent. Zinc salts show cost-effective and long-lasting
antimicrobial efficacy when solution-deposited on common textiles,
such as nylon, polyester, and cotton. Unlike common alcohol-based
disinfectants, these zinc salt-treated textiles mitigate microbial
growth for more than 30 days and withstand commercial drying. Polyester
fabrics treated with ZnO and ZnCl<sub>2</sub> were further explored
because of their commercial ubiquity and likelihood for rapid commercialization.
ZnCl<sub>2</sub>-treated textiles were found to retain their antimicrobial
coating through abrasive testing, whereas ZnO-treated textiles did
not. Scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy,
and differential scanning calorimetry analyses suggest that ZnCl<sub>2</sub> likely hydrolyzes and reacts with portions of the polyester
fiber, chemically attaching to the fiber, whereas colloidal ZnO simply
sediments and binds with weaker physical interactions