Silver-nanowire-modified fabrics for wide-spectrum antimicrobial applications

Antimicrobial textiles received considerable attention due to public health and personal hygiene concerns. On the other hand, pathogenic microorganisms gain immunity against existing antibacterial products. For these reasons, new and stronger antibacterial agents need to be developed immediately. In this work, silver nanowires (Ag NWs) were decorated onto conventional fabrics via facile and scalable dip and dry method. Antimicrobial activity of the nanowire-decorated fabrics was investigated against a Gram-positive coccus (Staphylococcus aureus), a Gram-negative bacillus (Escherichia coli), a Gram-positive and spore-forming bacillus (Bacillus cereus), and a yeast-like fungus (Candida albicans) via disk diffusion and time–dependent killing methods. The effect of Ag NW content was investigated, and the decorated fabrics showed promising antibacterial activity even with a small amount of Ag NW decoration (0.095 mg/cm2). Moreover, decorated fabrics maintained their activity for 24 h. This work shows that Ag NW-modified fabrics can be used as antimicrobial textiles against a wide spectrum of bacteria.