Application of organoselenium compounds to cotton textiles to impart antimicrobial property

Cotton is one of the most widely used textile materials in households, offices, industries, and hospitals. One of the major limitations of using cotton fabric as clothing is its propensity to get easily attacked by microbes. Microbial attack on the cotton material leads to hygiene issues for users. In primary health care clinics, cotton textiles may act as media for cross-infection. To overcome this shortcoming, antimicrobial treatment of cotton textile is necessary. In this study, we apply two newly synthesized reactive organoselenium (OS) compounds (OS-1 and OS-2) to cotton textile to impart antimicrobial activity. In the first approach, OS compounds are applied to a bleached cotton fabric using Na2SO4 and Na2CO3, mimicking the traditional dyeing process. In another approach, they were applied to the pre-cationized cotton fabric to eliminate the use of Na2SO4. XPS analysis confirmed the presence of Se on OS-treated cotton fabric surface. Antibacterial tests showed that 1 % OS-1 treatment of pre-cationized cotton resulted in 100 % bacterial reduction in G+ve Staphylococcus aureus strain. In contrast, 5 % OS-1 treatment of bleached cotton was required to get a complete reduction in G+ve Staphylococcus aureus strain. The highest activities against G-ve Escherichia coli bacteria (up to 74 %) and Candida albicans (100 %) were obtained using 5 % OS-1-treatment of pre-cationized cotton. 1% OS-2 treatment of pre-cationized cotton exhibited a 100 % reduction in the growth of G+ve Staphylococcus aureus bacteria and Candida albicans yeast. Bleached cotton treated with 1 % OS-2 also showed a 100 % reduction in the growth of G+ve Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. However, the same fabric did not exhibit complete fungal reduction against Candida albicans. The highest antibacterial activity (up to 74 %) against G-ve Escherichia coli bacteria was obtained when OS-2 was applied on pre-cationized cotton at a 5 % concentration. Durability study showed that more durable antimicrobial cotton fabric was produced when OS compounds were applied in pre-cationized cotton. Besides, a pre-cationized fabric treated with OS compound exhibited a lower degree of leaching. These suggest a higher fixation of OS molecules on cationized cotton than on bleached cotton. High affinity of OS molecules towards a cationized cotton fabric was confirmed by the exhaustion (%) study. Besides, OS-2 exhibited higher antimicrobial activity than OS-1. This can be due to the higher Se atom in OS-2 molecules than in OS-1. Assessment of color properties of OS-treated fabrics revealed that color yield (K/S) and CIE color difference (∆E*) values increased with the concentration of OS compounds. In summary, a method of producing antimicrobial cotton fabric is found that may not interrupt typical clothing manufacturing processes. Obtained antimicrobial fabric can be used in daily clothing, hospital textiles, hotel textiles, uniforms, socks, undergarments, and wound dressing.

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