Processing techniques of antimicrobial textiles

Antimicrobial textile is in high demand among textile consumers leading a healthy lifestyle. It covers a wide range of applications including healthcare/medical textiles, sportswear, food packaging and water purification systems. It also provides huge benefits to the user by controlling infections, preventing degradation and averting odours caused by bacteria, mould and mildew. The challenge in the case of antibacterial textile is the efficiency against a broad spectrum of microorganisms, nontoxicity, durability and compatibility. Considering these challenges some noble techniques and compounds from synthetic and natural origin have been used. Among the fabrication approaches of antimicrobial textile, the common ways are the inclusion of antimicrobial agents inside fibre polymer and modification of the textile substrate. This chapter presents various conventional and new antibacterial processing techniques including pad-dry-cure, spraying, exhaust methods, screen-printing, surface modification, spinning technologies etc. It also reviews the recent advancement of antibacterial textile finishes and processing techniques.