Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles and their application to cotton fabrics.

Herein we present a green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) under the reducing action of sugar and the stabilizing action of polyethylene glycol (PEG). Factors affecting the synthesis notably molecular weight of PEG and concentrations of both sugar and silver nitrate were examined for the sake of optimization. Thus obtained AgNPs were characterized, by ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectra for estimation of AgNPs formation and, Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for determination of size and shape. AgNPs were applied with 1,2,3,4-butane tetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) and sodium hypophosphite (SHP) as a catalyst to cotton fabric. Application was performed according to the conventional pad-dry-cure technique. The treated fabrics were evaluated via monitoring morphological changes of the fibers using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), tensile strength and crease recovery angles in addition to bioassay of antimicrobial activity of the treated fabrics. Research output disclosed that PEG having molecular weight 2000 is the best among the other PEG used.