Industrial Integration of Aerosol Route to Nanofinishing of Highly Effective Antibacterial Textiles

Industrial Integration of Aerosol Route to Nanofinishing of Highly Effective Antibacterial Textiles

Bhamidipati, A.S.M.

Schmidt-Ott, A. (mentor)
Valenti, M. (mentor)

Applied Sciences

ChemE/Chemical Engineering

2017-04-05

In the field of nanotechnology, the need to develop a green process for the production of nanoparticles brought into light the concept of nanoparticle aerosol generation. A novel method to produce an aerosol by synthesizing nanoparticles of conductive material having a potential to be scaled up is by spark ablation. Nanosized particulate antibacterial agents exhibit a high surface-to-volume ratio, which leads to a high antibacterial effiency. In this study, nanoparticles deposited on quartz fiber filter discs using aerosol generation were used to show the possibility of textile nanofinishing which can be applied to produce an advanced class of antimicrobial agents. The influence of various parameters on the particle size has been studied and singlet nanoparticles of silver (less than 10 nm) were successfully produced. Antimicrobial tests were carried out on the synthesized nanoparticles deposited on the filter fibers of various sizes, compositions and agglomerated states. A time-kill curve was determined based on the cell count of the bacteria at each time interval. Antimicrobial activity of the synthesized nanoparticles was very effective (comparable to 6 μM AgNO3), and faster death of bacteria was obtained for non-coalesced (high-surface area) particles when compared to the coalesced ones (low-surface area). Size-selected particles and alloyed particles produced by spark mixing also seemed to have an effect on the bacterial colony. The antimicrobial activity of Silver nanoparticles produced by spark ablation was confirmed and nanoparticle migration from the filter was observed. Using the spark ablation tech- nique, further studies to confirm the antimicrobial activity of various nanoparticles can be performed and can be used in various applications such as textile nanofinishing and water disinfection.

Spark ablation
Antimicrobial activity
Textile nanofinishing

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:11b2fc73-33fd-4be2-ac07-bc159df4ad4d

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2017 Bhamidipati, A.S.M.