Modification, characterization and evaluation of anti-microbial property of Ag-TiO₂ nanoparticles coated traditional leather

Abstract

This study aims to modify the traditional leather for footwear products in order to confer antimicrobial property based on coating the leather with Ag-TiO₂ nanoparticles. Silver nanoparticles has been known for its antibacterial activity. Titanium dioxide is widely used in self-cleaning and self-sterilizing of surfaces. The synthesis of TiO₂ and Ag-TiO₂ nanoparticles were carried out by a hydrothermal method, which offers significant advantage in terms of short synthesis time, energy saving and low-cost. Anatase TiO₂ nanoparticles with dimension below 10 nm were obtained as studied by X-ray diffraction. In addition, the cytotoxicity of the
nanoparticles were tested and evaluated against Artemia Salina and were found to be non-cytotoxic. The Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) showed that the structure of leather did not show any change upon addition of the nanoparticles. The antimicrobial activity was tested against two bacterial isolates (S. aureus and P.aeruginosa) and one fungal Isolates (C. albicans). The result showed that the leather that had been coated with Ag-TiO₂ NPs offers potent antimicrobial property In contrast to the leather coated with only TiO₂ . Therefore silver is identified as the main antimicrobial agent. This study suggests that an added value to the traditional leather product was achieved.