Pilot scale sonochemical coating of nanoparticles onto textiles to produce biocidal fabrics

The pilot installation is designed for the scale up of sonochemically assisted coating of textile fabrics with various kinds of nanoparticles. The installation can coat up to 50 m of continuous cotton fabric per run with CuO or ZnO nanoparticles. The structure and morphology of the metal oxides adhering to the fabric on the coated cotton have been characterized by XRD and HR SEM, and shown to be nanocrystalline oxides (similar to 10-20 nm in size). The coating is homogeneous, stable and retains its biocidal properties through at least 20 washing cycles. The CuO-cotton bandages demonstrated good antimicrobial properties against E. coli bacteria. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.