title: Development and performance optimization of knitted antibacterial materials using polyester-silver nanocomposite fibres.
abstract: The development and performance optimization of knitted antibacterial materials made from polyester-silver nanocomposite fibres have been attempted in this research. Inherently antibacterial polyester-silver nanocomposite fibres were blended with normal polyester fibres in different weight proportions to prepare yarns. Three parameters, namely blend percentage (wt.%) of nanocomposite fibres, yarn count and knitting machine gauge were varied for producing a large number of knitted samples. The knitted materials were tested for antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus. Statistical analysis revealed that all the three parameters were significant and the blend percentage of nanocomposite fibre was the most dominant factor influencing the antibacterial activity of knitted materials. The antibacterial activity of the developed materials was found to be extremely durable as there was only about 1% loss even after 25 washes. Linear programming approach was used to optimize the parameters, namely antibacterial activity, air permeability and areal density of knitted materials considering cost minimization as the objective. The properties of validation samples were found to be very close to the targeted values.
authors.affiliation: Department of Textile Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi 110 016, India. Electronic address: majumdar@textile.iitd.ac.in.
authors.forename: Abhijit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Majumdar
authors.affiliation: Department of Textile Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi 110 016, India.
authors.forename: Bhupendra Singh
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Butola
authors.affiliation: Department of Textile Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi 110 016, India.
authors.forename: Sandip
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thakur
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D016014:Linear Models; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D053761:Nanocomposites / Q000737:chemistry*; D011091:Polyesters / Q000737:chemistry; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry*; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D011091:Polyesters; D012834:Silver
keywords: Antibacterial material; Knitted; Nanocomposite; Optimization; Polyester