Antibacterial activity of cotton coated with ZnO and ZnO-CNT composites

With the growing public health awareness of the pathogenic effects and strain formations caused by microorganisms, there is an increasing need for antibacterial materials in many applications. Zinc oxide (ZnO)-1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) and ZnO-BTCA-carbon nanotube (CNT) composites were synthesized by simple stirring method. The synthesized materials were coated on cotton fabric by pad-dry-cure method separately. The coated fabrics were characterized by FT-IR analysis that revealed the cross-linking in the composites. The fabrics were screened for antibacterial activity by agar well diffusion method against gram positive Staphylococcus aureus and gram negative Escherichia coli. The results showed that the ZnO-BTCA-CNT-coated fabric has improved antibacterial activity when compared with the ZnO-BTCA-coated fabric.