Title:Imparting Pharmaceutical Applications to the Surface of Fabrics for Wound and Skin Care by Ultrasonic Waves
Volume: 25
Issue: 41
Author(s): Aharon Gedanken, Nina Perkas, Ilana Perelshtein*Anat Lipovsky
Affiliation:
- Department of Chemistry and Institute for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002,Israel
Keywords:
Antibacterial activity, coating, metal oxides, nanoparticles, sonochemistry.
Abstract: In this review, we report the functionalization of textiles composed of nanoscale
reactive materials in the treatment of wounds and skin diseases such as acne. In view of the
growing demand for high-quality textiles, much research is focused on the creation of antimicrobial
finishings for fabrics, in order to protect customers from pathogenic or odorgenerating
microorganisms. We present coatings from inorganic, organic and biochemical
nanoparticles (NPs) on surfaces that impart the ability to kill bacteria, avoid biofilm formation
and speed up the recovery of wounds. In all three cases, sonochemistry is used for immobilizing
the nanoparticles on the surfaces. The Introduction broadly covers the progress of
nanotechnology in the fields of wound and skin care. The first section of this review outlines
the mechanism of the ultrasound-assisted deposition of nanoparticles on textiles. The coating
can be performed by an in-situ process in which the nanoparticles are formed and subsequently
thrown onto the surface of the fabrics at a very high speed. This approach was used in
depositing metal-oxide NPs such as ZnO, CuO and Zn-CuO or the organic NPs of tannic acid,
chitosan, etc. on textiles. In addition, the sonochemical process can be used as a "throwing
stone" technique, namely, previously synthesized or commercially purchased NPs can be
placed in the sonication bath and sonicated in the presence of the fabric. The collapse of the
acoustic bubble in the solution causes the throwing of the immersed commercial NPs onto the
textiles. This section will also outline why sonochemical deposition on textiles is considered
the best coating technique. The second section will discuss new applications of the sonochemically-
coated textiles in killing bacteria, avoiding biofilm formation and more.
Two points should be noted: 1) the review will primarily report results obtained at Bar-Ilan
University and 2) since for all textiles tested in our experiments (cotton, polyester, nylon, nonwoven)
similar results were obtained, the type of textile used in a specific experiment will not
be mentioned - textiles will be discussed in general. It is also worth emphasizing that this review
concentrates only on the sonochemical coating of textiles, ignoring other deposition
techniques.
