Chemical, mechanical and antibacterial properties of silver nanocluster/silica composite coated textiles for safety systems and aerospace applications

Highlights: • Silver nanoclusters-silica composite coatings were deposited on textiles. • Textiles for NBC protection suites and for aerospace applications were considered. • The coating process conferred all textiles a good antibacterial activity. • The coating does not alter the properties of bare textiles. - Abstract: This work describes the chemical, mechanical and antibacterial properties of a novel silver nanocluster/silica composite coating, obtained by sputtering, on textiles for use in nuclear bacteriological and chemical (NBC) protection suites and for aerospace applications. The properties of the coated textiles were analyzed in terms of surface morphology, silver concentration and silver release in artificial sweat and synthetic tap water, respectively. No release of silver nanoparticles was observed at given conditions. The water repellency, permeability, flammability and mechanical resistance of the textiles before and after sputtering demonstrated that the textile properties were not negatively affected by the coating. The antibacterial effect was evaluated at different experimental conditions using a standard bacterial strain of Staphylococcus aureus and compared with the behavior of uncoated textiles. The coating process conferred all textiles a good antibacterial activity. Optimal deposition conditions were elaborated to obtain sufficient antibacterial action without altering the aesthetical appearance of the textiles. The antibacterial coating retained its antibacterial activity after one cycle in a washing machine only for the Nylon based textile