Antimicrobial Micro Encapsulated cellulosic Textiles

Increasing global competition in textiles has created many challenges for textile researchers. Novel finishes of high added value for apparel fabrics are also greatly appreciated by the most demanding consumer market. In the present study an attempt was made to finish cotton textiles with microcapsules from plant sources with combination of gum sources to impart the antimicrobial finish. Microcapsules were prepared with plant sources as a core material and gum sources as wall material at two different concentrations. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) at 1600 to 8500 magnification revealed that the microcapsules were between 1.24m to 2.29 m. Increase in gum percent resulted in increase in size of microcapsule. Finish was applied to woven and knitted textiles using pad-dry-cure method with curing at 35 to 40C. The antibacterial activity was evaluated by a modified qualitative test method AATCC-147, 2004 for the growth inhibition and AATCC-30, 2004, for anti fungal activity against both Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Antibacterial bacterial activity was found to be zero in both untreated woven and knitted fabrics. Among the treated fabrics, periwinkle with all gum sources showed higher Zoi against E. coli over S. aureus in both woven and knitted fabrics. Fabrics finished with microcapsules with 5 per cent gum as wall material had high Zoi than their counter parts. Treated knitted samples performed better than woven samples for all sources.