Journal of Medical Physics and Applied Sciences

Description

In their interesting paper entitled “Preparation and antimicrobial activity of ZnO-NPs coated cotton/starch and their functionalized ZnO-Ag/cotton and Zn(II) cur cumin/cotton materials”, El Nahhal et al. [1] have performed a systematic literature about the use of nanometal and nanometal oxides coated cotton textiles to impart pathogenic bacteria by prescribing, dispensing and documenting in order to identify the main contributory factors involved. Due to the pathogenic bacteria resistance against classical antimicrobial therapies, new strategies are recently considered in order to combat bacteria resistance by using various types of inorganic nanometals and nanometal oxides particles coated cotton textiles to impart their antimicrobial activity. These materials showed high stability and antibacterial effectiveness even after intensive laundry regimes are employed in hospitals [2,3]. Special attention has been directed toward the use of antibacterial coated fabrics e.g. medical clothes to minimize the chance of nosocomial infections [4-6].

The authors have clearly highlighted the question of their research work in the light of previous reported works to keep improvements with respect of both the synthetic approaches, durability tests and antimicrobial activities to impart pathogenic bacterial. The main problem is that these materials suffer from leaching of the coated analytes from the surface of cotton textiles upon harsh washings processes. Therefore, the authors have tried to prepare stable nanometal oxide coated cotton materials with least leachable and more effective for elimination of microbial pathogens.

It has been reported that natural biodegradable and biocompatible biopolymers chemically linked with metal oxides have been recently employed to enhance the nanoparticles stability [7-9]. The use of the various agents e.g. enzymes, chemicals or binding agents as tools for activation of textiles may result in changes in the nature of the cotton fibres [10-12]. Harsh chemicals and enzymes or binding agent in-situ synthesis of metal oxides coated cotton are not recommended and should be avoided. Recently, different surfactants include: cationic anionic and non-anionic were used in the preparation [3]. Surfactants were used to stabilize nanometal and nanometal oxides by controlling their shape and size as encapsulated species [3]. The same authors have recently also used starched cotton for the first time as a new substrate for stabilizing the system by controlling the shapes and sizes of the nanometal oxides analytes [1]. This provides a new safe platform substrate in comparison with previous systems. There is a growing need to develop such environmentally friendly, green yet efficient synthetic approaches for synthesis of Ag nanoparticles. Therefore, eco-friendly agents like starch, glucose, chitosan etc. have attracted researchers as an alternative source for toxic chemicals [13-16]. Amongst them starch has become widely used as both reducing as well as capping agent because of the hydroxyl groups present in it.

They quantitatively analyzed the structural properties of coated cotton materials and used to impart their antimicrobial activity. The new materials showed high stability and antibacterial effectiveness even after several washing cycles. Further efforts and more focused strategies would be necessary to minimize the leaching of the coated analytes by controlling their shapes and sizes. Starch is one of the best, but we have to try with various simple experiment conditions to accomplish a stable nanometals and nanometal oxides coated cotton textile and to maintain high antimicrobial efficiently.

References

1. El-Nahhal IM, Salem JK, Anbar R, Kodeh FS, Elmanama A (2020) Preparation and antimicrobial activity of ZnO-NPs coated cotton starch and their functionalized ZnO-Ag/ cotton and Zn(II) curcumin/cotton materials. Scientific Reports 10: 5410.
2. Salat M, Petkova P, Hoyo J, Perelshtein I, Gedanken A, et al. (2018) Durable antimi-crobial cotton textiles coated sonochemically with ZnO nanoparticles embedded in an in-situ enzymatically generated bioadhesive, Carbohydr Polym 189: 198-203.
3. El-Nahhal MI, Elmanama AA, ElAshgar MN, Amara N, Selmane M, et al. (2017) Stabilization of nano-structured ZnO particles onto the surface of cotton fibers using different surfactants and their antimicrobial activity Ultrason. Sonochem 38: 478-487.
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