Radiochemical synthesis of silver nanoparticles onto textile fabrics and their antibacterial activity

This paper presents a new technique for synthesizing silver nanoparticles immobilized on textile fabrics using a radiochemical process. In this process, the irradiation of a high-energy electron beam on an aqueous solution containing silver ions induces a reducing reaction that forms metallic silver nanoparticles. Small Ag particles of about 2–4 nm were observed together with relatively large particles of more than 10 nm. These nanoparticles are firmly immobilized on the surface of a support textile fabric without the need for any binder or surfactant. The amount of silver nanoparticles immobilized was found to depend on the water content of the support textile fabric, suggesting that the silver ions are reduced not only by radiochemical species generated by the radiolysis of water, but also by radiochemical species generated in the irradiated support fabric itself. The silver nanoparticles that were immobilized on the support textile fabric exhibited an excellent antibacterial activity across a wide antibacterial spectrum, even after a durability test involving washing the fabric 100 times. (author)