Textile with silver silica spheres: its antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus

The aim of this study was to investigate antimicrobial activity of textiles doped with silver in different forms. Three types of textiles were prepared and examined: textiles doped with commercially available Ag nanoparticles, textiles doped with commercial colloidal silver and textiles doped with silver silica SiO2/Ag spheres. The specimens of silica submicron spheres were synthesized by the sol–gel method as a matrix for biological active silver. The results of microbiological tests revealed that among three kinds of Ag doped textiles only these doped with SiO2/Ag spheres are bacteriostatically active. During the experiments minimal inhibiting bacteria growth concentration of active SiO2/Ag spheres added to textiles was determined.