Reduced bacterial attachment on surface modified hydrophobic fabric surface: a possible approach for safety enhanced packaging material

摘要

In the present study, three surface modified fabrics were investigated for their bacterial attachment properties using Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (gram -ve) and Staphylococcus aureus (gram+ve) bacteria. The surface modified fabrics were nanometal oxide treated fabric (1163), nanometal oxide/hydrophobic coated fabric (1164), and superhydrophobic coated fabric (1165). The pristine cotton fabric (1166) was considered as control for all the experiments (n=6). A drop of 500ul, containing 1 × 10~5 colony forming units (cfu/ml) of gram -ve/ gram +ve bacteria was placed on each fabric and the fabric with bacteria were subsequently incubated for 1h at 37~0 C. The drop was absorbed on the fabric such as 1166 and 1163 whereas the drop was in a floating state on fabric 1164 and 1165. Upon incubation, the drop was removed from the fabric surface and the bacterial recovery (if attached on the fabric) was performed using plate counting method using suitable dilutions. Salmonella Typhimurium count was reduced two folds for fabric 1163 and 1165 compared to fabric 1164 and 1166. On the other hand, Staphylococcus aureus count showed reduced bacterial count on fabric 1163 and 1164 and no count on paper 1165 compared to control 1166. Our results thus clearly indicate that surface modified fabric show reduced (1163 and 1164) or no (1165) bacterial attachment properties and therefore could be suitable of its application as a safety enhanced packaging material.