Characterization of Silica/Silver-based Antibacterial Leather

The hydrophilic character of vegetable tanned leather is potentially a medium for bacterial growth. A treatment using an antibacterial agent applies to prevent bacterial growth on it. The vegetable tanned leather in this study was obtained from the tanning of goat skin using mimosa as a tanning agent. The utilization of silica from volcanic ash modified with silver was employed in this study as an antibacterial agent. The functional groups of materials were analysed using FTIR spectrophotometer and evaluated. The results of thermal studies using TG/DTA show that vegetable tanned leather coated with silica (leather@SiO2 ) and vegetable tanned leather coated with silica/silver (leather@SiO2/Ag) are thermally stable materials. The inhibition zones of Staphylococcus aureus for leather@SiO2 and leather@SiO2/Ag were larger compared to vegetable tanned leather with inhibition area of 21.25 ± 0.50 mm, 24.80 ± 1.64 mm and 11.40 ± 0.55 mm, respectively. This confirmed the effectiveness of utilization of silica-based volcanic ash and silver as an antibacterial agent.