Improved antibacterial property of cotton fabrics coated with waste sericin/silver nanocomposite

Abstract

Sericin is a valuable protein with unique properties, however it is currently discarded as a waste in silk industry, which leads to economic losses and environmental pollution. This study focuses on the utilisation of recovered waste sericin as a potential antibacterial raw material in textile industry for the first time. Waste sericin was used as a reducing and stabilising agent in the production of sericin/silver nanocomposite samples with a binary reducing agent system containing NaOH and NaBH4. The nanocomposite samples were prepared with three different cross-linkers and applied to cotton fabrics at nanocomposite concentrations of 20 g/L and 40 g/L. The antibacterial performance against Escherichia Coli (E. Coli) and Staphylococcus Aureus (S. Aureus) was good; which remained even at the end of 20 wash cycles. The fabrics exhibited better mechanical properties in the presence of cross-linkers.