Effect of Dispersion Solvent on the Deposition of PVP-Silver Nanoparticles onto DBD Plasma-Treated Polyamide 6,6 Fabric and Its Antimicrobial Efficiency

Polyvinylpyrrolidone-coated silver nanoparticles (PVP-AgNPs) dispersed in ethanol, water and water/alginate were used to functionalize untreated and dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma-treated polyamide 6,6 fabric (PA66). The PVP-AgNPs dispersions were deposited onto PA66 by spray and exhaustion methods. The exhaustion method showed a higher amount of deposited AgNPs. Water and water-alginate dispersions presented similar results. Ethanol amphiphilic character showed more affinity to AgNPs and PA66 fabric, allowing better uniform surface distribution of nanoparticles. Antimicrobial effect in E. coli showed good results in all the samples obtained by exhaustion method but using spray method only the DBD plasma treated samples displayed antimicrobial activity (log reduction of 5). Despite the better distribution achieved using ethanol as a solvent, water dispersion samples with DBD plasma treatment displayed better antimicrobial activity against S. aureus bacteria in both exhaustion (log reduction of 1.9) and spray (methods log reduction of 1.6) due to the different oxidation states of PA66 surface interacting with PVP-AgNPs, as demonstrated by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. Spray method using the water-suspended PVP-AgNPs onto DBD plasma-treated samples is much faster, less agglomerating and uses 10 times less PVP-AgNPs dispersion than the exhaustion method to obtain an antimicrobial effect in both S. aureus and E. coli.