Technology to impart antibacterial properties to nonwoven textile materials

Main article: Innovations in medicine

2022: Creation of technology to impart antibacterial properties to textile

Scientists at NITU "MISiS" together with colleagues from other Russian universities have created a technology for imparting antibacterial properties to nonwoven textile materials. This was reported to Zdrav.Expert on March 17, 2022 by representatives of MISiS.

The technology is based on the modification of materials due to the use of gas-discharge radio-frequency plasma at low pressures. According to the authors, this method will find wide application in medicine. The study is published in the journal Materials Letters.

Antibacterial textiles in the hands of a graduate of iphd "Biomaterial Science" NITU "MISiS" Ilya Larina

A study aimed at imparting antibacterial properties to nonwoven textiles started simultaneously with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is known that in patients with severe COVID-19, immunity is weakened, this contributes to the development of secondary bacterial infections in them. Therefore, scientists set themselves the task of creating a material with a bacteriostatic effect for the manufacture of disposable medical clothes, sheets, diapers and other products. According to their calculations, the use of such materials would help to contain the spread of pathogenic bacteria in hospital conditions.

"To impart antibacterial properties to the nonwoven material, it was previously placed in a closed system between two electrodes. Air was pumped out to average vacuum, and at the same time argon was supplied to the system. When creating an electromagnetic field, it accelerated from the cathode to the anode and "bombarded" the product, thereby breaking the molecular bonds of the polymer composition. The functionalized surface was then impregnated with antibacterial agents, immersing it in a reservoir with suspensions of colloidal solution concentrate of silver nanoparticles, "said Ilya Larin, one of the authors of the study, a graduate of Biomaterial Science at NITU MISiS.

Thereafter, the antibacterial material was treated with a methane-argon mixture. Methane is included as a monomer in many polymers, it was used as building blocks on the surface of a nonwoven material, tying antibacterial agents to the surface. The resulting articles were then subjected to autoclave sterilization.

In the future, scientists plan to use radio frequency gas discharge plasma in the manufacture of composite materials, improving their physical, mechanical and operational properties.

The work was also attended by employees of the Kazan National Research Technological University, the Skolkovsky Institute of Science and Technology and the N.N. Blokhin National Research Center for Oncology. The study was conducted as part of the Priority 2030 program.