Cotton based bioactive wound dressing material with high absorbency and antibacterial activity

Cotton gauze fabrics with improved absorbency through yarn twist optimization and antimicrobial property using nanosilver have been prepared. The absorbency, mass loss (%), dehydration rate, wicking rate, surface morphology, surface chemical nature and antibacterial activity of cotton gauze fabrics have been evaluated. The gauze fabric with low twisted yarn shows better absorbency and vertical wicking rate as compared to that with higher twisted yarn. The cotton gauze fabric with optimized twist multiplier (3.0 TM) is then treated with silver nitrate precursor to form in-situ nanosilver on the surface of cotton by applying elevated pressure and temperature. The surface morphology has been studied by SEM and chemical nature by FTIR. The in-situ technique produces an average nanosilver particle size of 120 +/- 48 nm and shows 100% reduction for Klebsiella pneumoniae (Gram-negative bacterium) and 99.99% for Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive bacterium).