Preparation Of AgNPS non-woven fabrics Using an atmospheric pressure Plasma jet system

In recent years, a lot of attention has however been paid to achieve a multifunctional performance of PET fabrics, especially in the health and hygiene field. For this purpose, PET fabric treatment with antimicrobial agents has been extensively studied and results indicate the capability of preventing the growth of pathogenic microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, algae,…. In this work, an antimicrobial nanosilver non-woven PET fabric has been prepared in a three step process with a novel multilayer structure: reservation layer, nanoparticle layer and barrier layer. Different surface characterization techniques like SEM and XPS have been implemented to study the morphology and the chemical composition of the nanosilver fabrics. Based on these techniques, a uniform immobilization of AgNPs in the PET matrix has been observed. The antimicrobial activity of the treated fabrics has also been tested using Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans. It reveals that the thickness of the barrier layer has a strong effect on the bacterial reduction of the fabrics. The durability and stability of the AgNPs on the fabrics has also been investigated in a washing process. By doing so, it is confirmed that the barrier layer can effectively prevent the release of AgNPs and that the thickness of the barrier layer is an important parameter to control the silver ions release. Besides, the control of incorporated silver content is studied by the concentration of AgNPs dispersion.In recent years, a lot of attention has however been paid to achieve a multifunctional performance of PET fabrics, especially in the health and hygiene field. For this purpose, PET fabric treatment with antimicrobial agents has been extensively studied and results indicate the capability of preventing the growth of pathogenic microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, algae,…. In this work, an antimicrobial nanosilver non-woven PET fabric has been prepared in a three step process with a novel multilayer structure: reservation layer, nanoparticle layer and barrier layer. Different surface characterization techniques like SEM and XPS have been implemented to study the morphology and the chemical composition of the nanosilver fabrics. Based on these techniques, a uniform immobilization of AgNPs in the PET matrix has been observed. The antimicrobial activity of the treated fabrics has also been tested using Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans. It reveals that the thickness of the barrier layer has a strong effect on the bacterial reduction of the fabrics. The durability and stability of the AgNPs on the fabrics has also been investigated in a washing process. By doing so, it is confirmed that the barrier layer can effectively prevent the release of AgNPs and that the thickness of the barrier layer is an important parameter to control the silver ions release. Besides, the control of incorporated silver content is studied by the concentration of AgNPs dispersion.C