Preparation of silver-coated cotton fabrics using silver carbamate via thermal reduction and their properties

In this study, cotton fabric was successfully coated with silver to have both antibacterial and conductive properties through a facile thermal reduction process at a low temperature using silver 2-ethylhexylcarbamate as the starting material. The cotton fabric modified with 3-mercaptopropyltriethoxysilane was padded with a solution of silver 2-ethylhexylcarbamate in methanol and then reduced for the in situ generation of Ag nanoparticles by only heating at 130°C. The silver-coated cotton fabrics (cotton/Ag) were examined by a scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses. The morphology of cotton/Ag nanocomposite fabrics conveyed a uniform and continuous layer of silver metal on the cotton surface. The results indicated that the silver nanoparticles were assembled on cotton fibers with a size range from 20 to 100 nm. The cotton/Ag imparts high conductivity to the textiles with electric resistance as low as 3.92±0.18 Ω. The antibacterial effects of the treated cotton fabric against Escherichia coli O157:H7 (ATCC 43889) and Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923) were examined and found to be excellent.