With the improvement of living standards, consumers in household textile areas pay more attention to the functionality, safety, and health of the products.
Antibacterial textiles are one of the most popular functional textiles in the textile market today. The so-called antibacterial fibers and textiles are fibers with functional effects of antibacterial or bactericidal (harmful organisms such as fungi or viruses).
Which fibers have an antibacterial function? What is the antibacterial effect? Here, we will get to know several fibers with antibacterial functions.
At present, antibacterial fibers are mainly divided into natural antibacterial fibers and artificial antibacterial fibers.
Natural antibacterial fibers
Natural antibacterial fibers are fibers that have antibacterial functions due to the structure or the chemicals they contain.
Artificial antibacterial fibers are fibers with an antibacterial agent added to the interior or surface of the fiber through spinning or finishing. The antibacterial agent plays a bactericidal role in the release process.
Artificial antibacterial fibers
⊙ Silver, zinc, copper, and other metal ions antibacterial fiber
Metal ion antimicrobial fiber realizes its antibacterial function by the continuous release of metal ions. The common methods of synthesis of its antimicrobial fabric are adding method and finishing method.
1) Adding method
Adding method is to add silver ions, zinc ions, and copper ions to the interior of the fiber. The antibacterial effect is lasting and resistant to washing;
2) Finishing method
Finishing method is easy to process. But the antibacterial properties of the products will decrease with washing times.
Antibacterial mechanism: silver ions, zinc ions, copper ions and some components of bacteria or proteins in the plasma combined to make bacteria inactive. Silver ions, zinc ions, copper ions have broad-spectrum strong antibacterial properties, strong permeability, and has the effect of promoting healing wounds and reducing the generation of scars.
⊙ Organic antimicrobial agent antibacterial fiber
Organic antimicrobial agent antimicrobial fiber is obtained by adding organic antimicrobial agent to the fiber without changing the basic performance of the fiber. Organic antimicrobial agent is efficient in sterilization and cheap in cost. However, organic antimicrobial agents are usually toxic, poor in heat resistance, easy to produce microbial resistance.
Application areas of antibacterial textiles:
Medical textiles
Antimicrobial textiles are used in the medical field to greatly reduce the growth of bacteria and patient healing, such as surgical sutures, masks, surgical gloves, etc. The antibacterial rate of antibacterial textiles made of zeolite-doped/cotton (65/35) is more than 70% against L. pneumoniae after 50 times of washing.
Home textiles
Home textiles tend to breed mites and bacteria because of good environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, and oxygen. The development of antibacterial textiles for home use has good prospects.
Technical textiles
Antimicrobial textiles are already being used in technical textiles such as filter fabrics and automotive interiors. For example, the use of antimicrobial seats and upholstery in automobile interiors can greatly reduce the growth of bacteria in the car; filter cloths with antimicrobial properties through finishing can greatly reduce the survival of bacteria and other harmful bacteria in the filter.
