Antimicrobial activity of chitosan and its derivatives exhausted cotton fabrics as ecofriendly antimicrobial agents

Development of the antimicrobial activity of cotton fabric using chitosan, N-(2-Hydroxy) propyl-3- trimethyl-ammonium chitosan chloride (HTACC), and N-methylol-acrylamide-N-(2-hydroxy) propyl-3-trimethyl-ammonium chitosan chloride (NMA-HTACC) was investigated. Moisture absorbency is an important property of cotton fabric due to which bacteria can easily affect the cotton fabric and lowers the quality of it. Chitosan, HTACC, and NMA-HTACC were applied on cotton fabric by exhaustion method and observed antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Among the finished fabrics, NMA-HTCC treated cotton fabric showed over 93% of bacterial reduction against E. coli and over 97% of bacterial reduction against S. aureus even after 30 home launderings. This is due to the strong attachment ability of NMA-HTACC to cotton fabric and better solubility in aqueous solution and the presence of positive charge of the nitrogen atom in its structure in all conditions. For this reason, NMA-HTACC can be applied to develop cotton fabric as anti-bacterially active which makes it suitable for medical purposes by minimizing the chances of growth and multiplication of bacteria.