Investigation on Durability of Copper Nano Particles on Cotton Fiber

In recent years, metal nano particles such as silver, copper and zinc have developed in textilefinishing. Copper nano particles are used in wound dressings and socks to give them antibacterialproperties. In the present paper, cotton fabrics were treated with different concentrations of Cu nanoparticles colloidal solution. For investigation of the durability of nano particles on cotton fabric,laundering test was carried out. Antibacterial activity, wetting time, bending length, crease recoveryangle and whiteness were investigated. Cu ions contents on cotton fabric were determined usingatomic absorption spectroscopy and the chemical bonding was detected using the FTIR/ATRspectroscopy. The scanning electron microcopy was used for surface morphology studies. Theresults showed that increase of copper nano particles concentration increased antibacterial activity,and after repeated laundering, some of copper nano particles were removed from the fabric so thatbacteria reduction reached to 92 %. Whiteness decreased by Cu nano particles coating. Increase ofcopper nano particles concentration increased crease recovery angle, bending length, wetting time.Atomic absorption analysis showed the decrease of copper ion content after repeated laundering.