Antimicrobial treatments of undergarments designed for the combat-protective clothing of soldiers

Abstract

Military forces around the world must be equipped with combat-protective clothing made from the best technical textiles available that must provide sufficient protection, increased comfort, and even antimicrobial protection, especially for underwear pieces. Antibacterial treatments for textile materials include the use of various substances such as chitosan, silver, collagen and so on. Chitosan is a polysaccharide that promotes changes in the permeability properties of the membrane wall causing internal osmotic imbalances and consequently inhibits the growth of microorganisms. Silver can also damage the bacterial RNA and DNA, eventually leading to the bacteria`s death. Moreover, collagen, a fibrous natural protein, has an intrinsic ability to fight infection and contributes to keeping the infection site sterile.This paper focuses on the functionalization of four variants of textile materials with different compositions to increase their antibacterial properties. The variants were treated through two different technologies: exhaustion (30 min at 40°C, 500 rpm) and padding (3 consecutive passes). V1-V4 were functionalized with colloidal silver and V1-V3 with a mixture of collagen hydrolysate and colloidal silver through exhaustion. Variants V1-V3 were also treated through the padding technique using 0.5% chitosan, 1% collagen hydrolysate and a mixture of chitosan and colloidal silver. Untreated textile variants were evaluated regarding their physical-mechanical characteristics. Moreover, the functionalized variants were characterised according to their pH, loading degree with active substances (%), wettability by drop test and contact angle methods, thermal resistance (m2K/W) and vapour resistance (m2Pa/W) according to ISO 11092. Treated textile samples were also investigated relating to their antimicrobial resistance using two methods according to ISO 20743/2013 and SR EN ISO 20645/2005. The evaluation of antibacterial resistance using the standards SR EN ISO 20645/2005 and SR EN ISO 20645/2005 demonstrated the effectiveness of treatments with active substances for approx. 95% of the tested variants.

Keywords: antibacterial, colloidal silver, chitosan, collagen, padding technique, exhaustion

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1004210