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Mahltig, et al., J Fashion Technol Textile Eng 2015, 3:1
http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2329-9568.1000118
Research Article
Copper Containing Coatings for
Metallized Textile Fabrics
Boris Mahltig1*, Daniel Darko1, Karoline Günther1 and Hajo
Haase2,3
Abstract
Compared to silver modified textiles, textiles modified with copper
components are less prominently mentioned in literature. Therefore,
the aim of the now presented paper is to present an overview on
different copper functionalized textiles. For this presentation, two
types of fabrics are taken into account – commercially available
copper plated polyamide and textiles coated with copper containing
effect pigments. The surface properties and the composition of those
materials are presented in detail. Optical properties are determined
in the arrangements of diffuse reflection and diffuse transmission
for UV-, visible- and IR-light. Hints on probable applications
in the fields of radiation protection are reported. Furthermore,
antibacterial properties against the bacteria E.coli and S.aureus are
reported. In most cases, copper is accompanied by different types
of metals (such as silver, zinc, aluminium or nickel) or semi-metal
(as silicon) and the material properties and antibacterial activity are
significantly influenced by these accompanying elements. Copper
coated textiles are promising for realization of optical effects,
electric conductive fabrics, radiation protection and antimicrobial
applications.
Keywords Metallized textiles; Antimicrobial; Conductive; Surface
modification
Introduction
Copper is used by humans since ancient times for many
purposes as household devices, tools, weapons or coins [1-3]. This
red metal has the second highest electric conductivity, high thermal
conductivity and also antimicrobial properties [4,5]. Compared to
the other two metals of the same family, silver and gold, the price
of copper is moderate (Table 1) [6]. However for many applications
copper is not used as pure element. The surface of copper is often
coated to prevent corrosion and oxidation from air and rain leading
to undesired color shades [7,8]. Also copper is used as alloy (bronze)
to decrease its softness or to reach special optical color shades from
dark red to bright yellow [9].
Altogether copper is an interesting and useful metal, whose useful
properties can be combined with textiles by application of copper
containing coatings. Very prominently described in the literature
are silver coated textiles, probably because of their high electric
conductivity, their antimicrobial activity and manifold applications
in the medicine [10-16]. Due to the rise of nanotechnology in recent
*Corresponding author: Boris Mahltig, FTB, Hochschule Niederrhein –
University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Textile and Clothing Technology,
Webschulstr. 31, 41065 Mönchengladbach, Germany, Tel: +49 2161 186 6128;
Fax: +49 2161 186 6013; E-mail: Boris.mahltig@hs-niederrhein.de
Received: August 30, 2015 Accepted: December 23, 2015 Published:
December 27, 2015
International Publisher of Science,
Technology and Medicine
Journal of Fashion
Technology &
Textile Engineering
a SciTechnol journal
years, also many reports are related to the application of silver
nanoparticles onto textiles [17-22]. However, it should be mentioned
that products containing silver and especially nanosilver are a topic
in public discussions, because environmental and health risks are
expected. With background of these discussions many companies
also search for alternative silver-free materials with same quality and
property but less public recognition. Suitable alternatives could be
given by other metals in the same chemical family - copper or gold.
As noble metal also gold is reported for application onto textile
substrates. These applications are performed as coating through
electroless deposition and by application of gold nanoparticles. The
purpose of the gold coatings is to realize electric conductive fibers.
By application of gold nanoparticles beside the modification of the
elelctrostatic properties also optical properties, UV-protection and
antimicrobial functions are introduced onto the textile substrates [2325]. However due to the costs of gold as metal or gold compounds used
as precursors for those preparations, it is from the economic point of
view not clear, if such applications will ever be commercialized in a
broad range of daily life applications.
Compared to the large number of reports on silver coated textiles,
textiles coated with copper are rarely discussed in literature. Copperplated fabrics are realized by electroless plating with the aim to create
a textile material for electromagnetic interference shielding (EMI
shielding) [26,27]. The combination of copper plating together with
other metals leads to different alloy containing coatings on textiles.
By this, different types of metallic coloration are realized for fashion
[28]. Beside EMI-shielding and coloration a very important issue is
the realization of fabrics or yarns with electric conductivity by coating
with copper [29,30]. Applications for these materials can be even
found in the field of medical devices, e.g. conductive copper plated
polyester fabrics for EEG measurement [31]. Beside the preparation
by electroless plating also different types of sputtering techniques and
vacuum evaporation deposition technique are used to realize copper
coatings on textiles and yarns [32-35].
These reported examples are mainly from scientific background
and related to the excellent conductivity of copper and applications
for EMI-shielding. For this, one aim of the now presented study is
to report on the antimicrobial properties of commercially available
materials as coated textiles plated by copper containing material and
textiles coated with a composition containing a binder and copper
containing effect pigments. Effect pigments are anisotropic pigments
with outstanding reflectivity for realization of special optical effects
[36]. These effect pigments can be used in textile coatings as well [37].
In general it can be distinguished between metal oxide containing
effect pigments and those effect pigments based on pure metal or
alloy [38-40]. Silver pigments are often used for printing of electrical
circuits, copper pigments to gain electric conductivity and gold
bronze pigments for special optically effect gold shades [9].
The comparison of copper plated and effect pigment containing
coatings is the aspect of this current paper, especially with respect to
the antimicrobial activity and optical properties of the investigated
textile materials. The determined properties are set in relation to
composition, structure and preparation process of the investigated
coated fabrics.
All articles published in Journal of Fashion Technology & Textile Engineering are the property of SciTechnol, and is protected
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Citation: Mahltig B, Darko D, Günther K, Haase H (2015) Copper Containing Coatings for Metallized Textile Fabrics. J Fashion Technol Textile Eng 3:1.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2329-9568.1000118
Metal
Prize [Euro/kg]
Gold
28650 – 32590
Silver
431 – 503
Tin
17.1 – 17.2
Nickel
13.9 – 14.0
Copper
5.0 – 5.1
Table 1: Overview on different industrially used metals and costs as reported by
an economic newspaper in spring 2015 [6].
Materials and Methods
Materials and sample preparation
Two types of copper containing textiles are taken into account
for the current investigation. First, these are plated polyamide fabrics
from the company Statex Produktions+Vertriebs GmbH (Bremen,
Germany). The purpose of these materials is mainly for EMI-shielding
and to support an electric conductive textile. Types and names of
these polyamide fabrics are listed in Table 2. According to the product
information gained from the supplier the polyamide type A; B and
C also contain other metals besides copper. This difference in metal
composition significantly influences the color of the fabric. Polyamide
type D contains as metal only silver and is used as reference.
The effect pigment coated textile substrates are realized by coating
of three different types of textiles (cotton, polyester, cotton 65%/
polyester 35% blend) with three different types of copper containing
effect pigments supplied by the company Eckart GmbH (Hartenstein,
Germany). The textiles are plain woven materials with the weight of 192
g/m2 for cotton (green colored), 82 g/m2 for polyester (white colored)
and 215 g/m2 for the cotton/polyester blend (black colored). All used
effect pigments are containing copper. Two of them are gold bronze
pigments containing copper alloy with the purpose of advantageous
optical effects. The third pigment is named econduct and consists of
a silver coated copper flake to realize electric conductive coatings.
Detailed informations are summarized in Table 3. Altogether a
sample set of nine different samples are taken into account for this
investigation. An acrylate binder of the type “Printperfekt 226 EC”
supplied by the CHT Beitlich GmbH (Tübingen, Germany) is used to
fix the pigments on the fabrics. This is a white acrylate screen printing
paste in an aqueous solution based on a dispersion of polyacrylates.
The pH of this Printperfekt-type is 7.5 to 9 and the solid content is 10
%. For printing application a mixture of binder:water:effect pigment
is used in a ratio of 3:1:1. The printing paste is applied by flat screen
printing using a screen with the mesh hole of approximately 40 μm.
After printing, the sample was dried and fixed at 100°C for 5 minutes.
Analytical methods
Material analytics: For investigation of the surface topography of
coated samples scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is used. These
measurements are performed with a TM 3000 Tabletop microscope
from Hitachi. For all SEM measurements, the acceleration voltage
is set to 15 kV. The SEM device is equipped with an EDS unit
(energy dispersive spectroscopy) Quantax 80 from Bruker, which
enables the determination of the elemental composition on sample
surfaces. With this EDS-device the chemical elements on the sample
surface can be detected, if the content of the element is 0.1 wt-% or
higher. The detection of the element nitrogen by EDS is for textile
samples almost difficult, because of the high content of carbon and
the similarity of peak position in the EDS spectrum of carbon and
nitrogen signal. The EDS-method is especially used for the element
Volume 3 • Issue 1 • 1000118
determination of the investigated metallized textiles, because this
method enables determining the element composition on the surface
of the samples and metallic coatings are the subject of the paper.
The optical properties of the textile samples are determined in
arrangement of diffuse reflection and transmission in a spectral range
from UV light to near infrared light (220 nm to 1400 nm). For this, a
spectrophotometer ISR-2600 Plus was used. This device contains an
integrating sphere allowing the detection of diffuse light. As reference
for this optical measurement a barium sulphate white standard
was used. The electric surface resistance of the samples containing
metallic effect pigments are determined with a testing device MilliTO3 supported by “Fischer Elektronik GmbH”. The electromagnetic
shielding properties of effect pigment containing samples were
tested by using a “Spectrum HF-6085X Analyser” equipped with an
OmniLOG antenna supported by AaroniaAG. As transmitter in this
arrangement a T868-K2 with a frequency of 868 MHz was used.
Antibacterial analytics: Antimicrobial testing is done by a viability
assay based on the reduction of methylthiazolyldiphenyltetrazolium
bromide (MTT) as described elsewhere [41,42]. Briefly, two types of
bacteria, E. coli and S. aureus were grown for 3h at 37°C, rotating at 120
rpm in an orbital incubator, in the presence of textile samples (squares of
5 mm edge length) in sterile 96-multiwell cell culture plates. Subsequent
to treatment with the fabric samples cells were incubated with 0.01%
(w/v) MTT in culture medium, followed by lysis in isopropanol and
determination of the absorption at 570 nm with a reference wavelength
of 700 nm. For each textile sample the measurement was conducted
three times with different cutouts from the same sample. A viability
value of 100% stands for a bacterial viability in a test arrangement
without any textile fabric. Additional reference measurements are
performed with three different types of uncoated polyamide fabrics.
Also uncoated polyester, cotton and cotton/polyester blended fabrics
were used for reference measurements as wells as the same type of
fabrics coated with pure binder layer without any addition of metallic
pigments.
Results and Discussion
Materials and surface properties
The element composition of the plated polyamide fabrics are
determined by EDS-method and compared to the information
gained by the manufacturer (Tables 2 and 4). The related EDS-spectra
are depicted in Figure 1. From the spectra, it is clear that elements
detected with a small content of 0.2 wt-% are nearly at the borderline
of the resolution of the methods. Fabric type A is named as copper,
tin and silver plated fabric and also all these metals are detected by
EDS. However the silver content is quite small with only 0.2 wt-%.
The copper content is with values >60 wt-% the highest. The elements
carbon and oxygen are only determined in small amounts. These
results indicate that the metal coating nearly completely covers the
textile surface. Also the formation of metal oxide on the coating
surfaces could not be determined.
According to supplier information, fabric type B is plated with
a composition of copper and silver. However by EDS-method only
copper can be determined on the sample surface. The absence of
silver in the EDS-spectrum could be explained by low a small content
of <0.1 wt-% silver or the silver is not directly present on the surface
of the coating. An explanation could be that silver is applied in small
amounts in a first coating step and in a second process step the larger
amount of copper is deposited.
• Page 2 of 10 •
Citation: Mahltig B, Darko D, Günther K, Haase H (2015) Copper Containing Coatings for Metallized Textile Fabrics. J Fashion Technol Textile Eng 3:1.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2329-9568.1000118
Table 2: Overview of investigated metallized polyamide fabrics, composition, purposes and properties are given according to producer information.
Type No.
Trade name
Composition
Purpose
Color
Plain weight
[g/m2]
Surface
Shielding effectiveness
resistance [Ohm]
A
Zell RS
Tin coppersilver plated
nylon fabric
Conductive woven fabric for
general use
Light grey
77
0.02
80 dB from 300 Mhz to
10 Ghz
B
Kassel RS
Copper-silver
plated nylon
Conductive gasket skin
Red
93
0.03
80 dB from 300 Mhz to
3 Ghz
C
Nora Dell DR
Nickel /copper /
silver platednylon fabric
Conductive woven fabric for
general use
Grey
95
0.09
100 dB from 30 Mhz to
10 Ghz
D
Berlin RS
Silver plated nylon fabric;
PUR coating on one side
Conductive fabric for gasket
skin
black
50
0.3
60 dB from 300 Mhz to
3 Ghz
Table 3: Overview of investigated metal effect pigments, used as additives in textile coatings.
Pigment No.
Trade name
Composition
Purpose
P1
Shinedecor 9350
Goldbronze
Advanced optical effects
Color
Red
P2
Shinedecor 9355
Goldbronze
Advanced optical effects
Yellow
P3
Econduct 421000
Silver coated copper
Conductive effects
Pale red
Table 4: Element composition on the plated polyamide fabrics as determined by EDS-method, magnification with 1500X; Only elements with a content of 0.1 wt-% or
higher are recorded.
Type No.
Detected metals [wt-%]
Detected non-metals and semi-metals [wt-%]
Cu
Ni
Sn
Ag
C
O
P
Si
A
67.8+/-2.1
---
26.4 +/-0.8
0.2 +/-0.1
4.7 +/-0.6
0.8 +/-0.1
---
-----
B
47.4+/-1.6
---
---
---
41.5 +/-4.6
11.1 +/-1.3
---
C
22.1+/-0.7
27.6 +/-0.9
---
---
39.3 +/-4.4
7.9 +/-0.9
3.3+/-0.2
---
D
---
---
---
28.3 +/-0.8
51.4 +/-4.8
20.2 +/-2.1
---
0.2+/-0.1
For polyamide fabric type C the situation is similar. The supplier
stated a coating containing the metals copper, nickel and silver.
However silver was not detectable by EDS-method, while the metals
copper and nickel are present in a ratio nearly 1:1. Surprisingly also
the element phosphor is detected on type C with the significant
content of 3.3 wt-%. The presence of phosphor could be the result
of production process. For some electroless deposition processes
the addition of phosphor containing compounds, such as sodium
hypophosphite is reported [29].
The fabric type D contains as expected silver in a high amount of
>25 wt-%. No further other metal is detected on type D, additionally
only small amounts of 0.2 wt-% silicon can be observed. The surface
topography of the electroplated polyamide fabrics is investigated by
SEM and for example the SEM images of fabric type A are presented
in Figure 2 with increasing magnification. It can be seen that the
coating is very flat and evenly distributed. In higher magnification of
12000X a porous structure of the metal coating gets visible.
On the pigment containing samples, by EDS-method different
types of metal and semi-metal beside copper are detected (Figure 3 and
Table 5). With pigment P1 beside copper only silicon is determined. It
is known that copper surfaces will oxidize with air during time and by
this a color change to black or green occurs. In fact, this type of color
change is not wished for copper based effect pigments, so usually they
are coated to protect the copper surface. Usual such a coating can be
of organic nature but also silicon containing coatings are in use [7,8].
Other metals are not detected by EDS-method for pigment
P1, even if for gold bronze pigments additional metals should be
expected. However with EDS-method only elements with content
higher >0.1 wt-% are taken into account due to the accuracy of this
method. Samples with pigment P2 contains beside copper and silicon
also the metals aluminium and zinc in significant amounts. The
presence of these metals is obvious a requirement to gain the “goldenVolume 3 • Issue 1 • 1000118
yellow” coloration of this gold bronze pigment. The coatings with
pigment P3 contains beside copper also silver. This is in accordance
to the product information supplied by the pigment producer, that
this pigment is a silver coated copper based pigment.
The evaluation of surface topography of the textiles with
pigment containing coating is done by SEM (Figure 4). It is seen
that the pigment particles are regularly distributed over the whole
textile surface and that the single effect pigments contain the socalled “cornflake”-structure. This cornflake structure is typical for
effect pigments and results from the production process. It is also
determined that mostly the anisotropic effect pigments are oriented
parallel to the textile surface. This is reported earlier to be the result of
a self-orientation during the coating and drying process [43].
Optical properties and radiation protection
The optical properties are determined for all samples in the
spectral range of 220 nm to 1400 nm and give for this information on
the coloration of samples but also on their ability to support protection
against UV- and IR light. These measurements are performed in
arrangement of diffuse reflection especially to support coloration
information and in diffuse transmission to support information
concerning radiation protection. In the measurement arrangement
of diffuse transmission all light which is transmitted through the
sample is collected and summarized. In comparison to the common
transmission measurements, in case of the actually used arrangement
beside the direct transmitted light also the light scattered during the
transmission is detected. The optical spectra of the plated polyamide
fabrics are summarized in Figure 5. In the visible range of light the
reflection spectra are according to the color of the fabric. The fabric
types A, C and D are grey with increasing intensity, so their reflection
should be of same intensity in the visibile range. For type A the
reflection is in the range of 30% to 40% for visible light. For the type
C and D the reflection is around 20%. In the IR-range the reflection
is little higher while for the UV-range reflection is lower, with values
• Page 3 of 10 •
Citation: Mahltig B, Darko D, Günther K, Haase H (2015) Copper Containing Coatings for Metallized Textile Fabrics. J Fashion Technol Textile Eng 3:1.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2329-9568.1000118
Figure 1: SEDS-spectra of the different metallized fabric types; the EDS is performed during SEM measurements with magnification of 1500x.
of around 5% for polyamide type C. The step determined in spectrum
of type A at wavelength of 830 nm is caused by changing of detectors
at this wavelength in the chosen arrangement of measurements. A
significant different reflectance spectrum is determined for polyamide
type B which contains the typically copper red coloration. This type B
exhibits significantly higher reflectance values for red visible light and
infrared light up to 80% reflection values.
Figure 2: SEM-images of increasing magnification metallized polyamide
fabric type A.
Volume 3 • Issue 1 • 1000118
The reflection spectra give mainly information on the color
properties of the samples. In comparison the transmission spectra
give information on the properties of textile samples to protect
against radiation. For this case, all four polyamide samples exhibit
excellent values with diffuse transmission of smaller 5% over the
whole investigated spectral range from 220 nm to 1400 nm (Figure
5). For this, a radiation protection can be stated for UV-light and
near infrared light. The fabric types A, B and C with pure metallic
coating exhibit nearly the same transmission in the IR-area, however
the type B gives lower transmission values for the UV-range. This red
colored polyamide sample type B with pure copper coating seems
to be especially suitable for a absorption of UV-light and therefore
for UV protective applications. In contrast to the other investigated
• Page 4 of 10 •
Citation: Mahltig B, Darko D, Günther K, Haase H (2015) Copper Containing Coatings for Metallized Textile Fabrics. J Fashion Technol Textile Eng 3:1.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2329-9568.1000118
transmission. Also these samples exhibit a strong shielding for
electromagnetic radiation in the range of 300 Mhz to 3 Ghz (Table
2). Altogether it can be summarized that the presented metallized
polyamide fabrics are excellent materials for applications of radiation
and light protection. They enable the protection against different
types of radiation from UV-light to microwaves.
The reflection spectra of the pigment coated fabrics are presented
in Figure 6. It is shown that the reflectance in the IR-area is increased
on the polyester substrate and the cotton/polyester blended yarn by
the applied effect pigments. For the coated cotton fabric the reflection
of IR-light is nearly in the same range for coated and uncoated
substrate. For this, it can be stated that the effect pigments have a
certain property to reflect infrared-light. This property could be of
certain interest for applications using heat reflection, e.g. for isolation
of buildings. The change in reflection properties in the visible range
after application of the effect pigment coatings is related to color
changes of the coated substrates, which gain the color of the metallic
pigment after the coating application.
The spectra of diffuse transmission of those coated fabrics are
reported in Figure 7. The transmission spectra are only reported for
the substrates cotton and polyester, because the black polyester/cotton
blended fabric exhibits already by itself a transmission near zero. It is
obviously clear that by effect pigment coatings the transmission of
light is reduced significantly over the whole investigated range from
220 nm to 1400 nm. The strongest decrease is gained with coatings
containing the pigment P3. Beside the type of applied pigment
also the type of textile substrate has a significant influence on the
transmission. For the UV-range only on cotton substrate a sufficient
low transmission of smaller 5% can be reached by the pigment
coatings. On the polyester substrates the transmission for UV-light in
the range of 300 nm to 400 nm cannot be decreased to values below
10%, this is probably not enough to indicate a complete protection
against the UV-light.
Figure 3: EDS-spectra of polyester fabrics carrying a coating with different
effect pigments; the EDS is performed during SEM measurements with a
magnification of 1500x.
polyamide fabrics the fabric type D exhibits no transmission of light
in the investigated spectral range. This sample contains beside the
metallic silver coating also a coating of black colored polyurethane
on one side. This black coating obviously blocks the complete
Volume 3 • Issue 1 • 1000118
Textiles coated with coatings containing the pigments P1 and P2
do not contain any shielding property against EMI radiation at 876
MHz. This result is in good agreement with the high surface resistance
of >108 Ohm of those samples. Probably these copper effect pigments
are coated with inert and isolating material to prevent corrosion of
the pigment. These isolating layers causes higher surface resistance,
because the pigments are isolated from each other. However for
EMI-shielding the textile materials should contain a certain electrical
conductivity. In contrast, the pigment P3 contains a copper core
and a coating made from conductive silver. The determined surface
resistance of P3 coatings on the different textile substrates leads
to values of 1.5 X 102 Ohm or smaller, so those coatings create a
conductivity on the coated textiles. Analogously to the conductivity
of samples also EMI-shielding properties in the range of 60 dB to 65
dB are determined. For this, it should be concluded, that coatings with
effect pigment P3 might by useable in the same kind for radiation
protective applications as the electroplated polyamide fabrics. In
contrast, samples containing the pigments P1 or P2 should be more
recommended for usage in decorative and fashion applications.
Biocidal properties
The antimicrobial effect of copper plated polyamide textiles is
tested with bacteria E.coli and S.aureus in reference to three types of
different uncoated polyamide textile sample R1, R2 and R3 (Figure
8). The remaining bacterial viability without any textile sample is set
as 100% value and the reference samples R2 and R3 lead to nearly
the same values. However, the reference R1 leads to a small decrease
• Page 5 of 10 •
Citation: Mahltig B, Darko D, Günther K, Haase H (2015) Copper Containing Coatings for Metallized Textile Fabrics. J Fashion Technol Textile Eng 3:1.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2329-9568.1000118
Table 5: Element composition on coated polyester fabric with coatings containing the different types of metal effect pigments. The element composition is determined
by EDS on SEM images with magnification of 1500X; Only elements with a content of 0.1 wt-% or higher are recorded.
Type No.
Detected metals [wt-%]
Detected non-metals and semi-metals [wt-%]
Cu
Zn
Ag
Al
C
O
Si
P1
25.8+/-0.8
---
---
---
57.6 +/-5.5
15.3 +/- 1.5
1.3 +/- 0.1
P2
10.9+/-0.3
4.1 +/-0.2
---
0.2 +/-0.1
65.1 +/-6.4
19.0 +/- 2.0
0.9 +/- 0.1
P3
59.5+/-1.9
---
4.2 +/-0.2
---
30.8 +/-3.3
5.5 +/- 0.6
0.4 +/- 0.1
Figure 4: SEM-images of effect pigment coatings on polyester fabrics. The
images are shown in increasing magnifications.
of bacterial viability to values of around 80%. This result could be
explained by effects from remaining finishing agents or dyeing agents
inducing an interaction with the bacteria.
The coated polyamide fabrics type A and type C are mainly in
the same range of remaining bacterial viability as the reference R1.
For this, the antibacterial effect as caused by the metal coating could
be supposed as measurable but also as very low effect. Remarkable is
the comparison, with the fabric type B a certain decrease in bacterial
viability to values around 30% are reached, even if the type B do not
contain any silver compared to type A. However type B contains a
pure copper coating and this is of obviously higher antibacterial
activity compared to the alloy coatings which are present in type
A and type C. The both fabrics type A and type C carry coatings of
copper alloys with tin or nickel. Tin and nickel have as pure elements
smaller antimicrobial activity compared to copper, so from coating
composition this effect could be expected. Further, Zhu et al. reported
the antibacterial properties of different copper alloys against different
germs [44]. In this reference it is stated that the investigated copper
alloys contain mostly less antibacterial activity compared to pure
copper metal. Only few alloys show the same antibacterial activity as
pure copper, however these alloys are of highest copper content. Also
the amount of silver in type A is very small, so the influence of silver
on the antibacterial properties of type A should be also small. The
sample D containing the higher silver content is as expected also of
strongest determined antibacterial activity. However, the remaining
bacterial viability of E.coli is with values around 15% not really low
compared to silver containing samples investigated with the same
method earlier [15,42]. A possible explanation would be that in type
D the silver coating is present in a combination with a polyurethane
coating, which could possibly block the release of antimicrobial
Volume 3 • Issue 1 • 1000118
active silver ions from the coating. Compared to earlier reports on
the antimicrobial effect of copper containing textiles, the copper
plated fabrics exhibit lower antimicrobial effect. Reports on strong
antimicrobial effects are often related to copper oxide nanoparticles
or copper salts applied on the textile [45,46]. These copper containing
compounds release copper ions in higher amounts into the
surrounding medium and therefore a higher antimicrobial effect can
be supposed compared to a metallic copper surface. For investigation
of antibacterial properties of the pigment coated textile samples it is
absolutely necessary to use as reference beside the uncoated textiles
also textile samples coated with pure binder layer without addition
of any pigment (Figure 9). It is clearly seen that samples containing
the binder coating contain lower remaining bacterial viability, so a
certain antibacterial effect could be also expected even for the pure
binder layer. This behavior could be explained by residues of biocidic
compounds in the binder recipe. Often water-based binder systems, as
the one used here, are containing biocides to prevent the binder from
bio-contamination and guarantee a longer life-time of the binder
recipe. For samples coated with pure binder for E.coli the remaining
bacterial viability is in the range of 45% (for CO/PET fabrics) to
nearly 75% (for PET fabrics). For S. aureus the bacterial viability
is for this case around values of 45%. Therefore, to state a certain
additional antibacterial effect by addition of the effect pigments, the
bacterial viability should be significantly below these values measured
with the reference systems. The remaining bacterial viability in case
of coating with pigment containing recipes is presented in Figure
10. For coatings containing the pigments P1 and P2, no significant
decrease in bacterial viability is observed compared to the reference
systems. Even though those gold bronze pigments contain copper in
a significant amount no additional antibacterial effect is determined,
if they are present on the textile fabric. For this it can be stated that
these effect pigments do not contain any antibacterial effect going
beyond the effect of the pure binder layer. This low activity of those
copper pigments can be explained with different arguments. First,
copper itself is of weaker antibacterial property compared to other
metals as e.g. silver. Second, the used copper pigments are coated
to stabilize their surface against oxidation. Third, the release of
antimicrobial active copper ion from the surface of alloy pigments is
generally low. However for antimicrobial activity it is necessary that
copper ions are released from the pigment surface, because the reason
for antimicrobial activity is the interaction of bacteria with copper
ions. If the copper surface is prevented from oxidation by a coating,
obviously less copper ions can be released and the expected biocidal
effects, resulting from the released copper ions, should also be smaller.
A different antibacterial behavior is observed in case of using the
copper/silver-pigment P3. Due to the silver content of this pigment
a certain antimicrobial effect is expected and according to this also a
significantly decreased bacterial viability is observed (Figure 10).
Conclusions
Commercially available copper plated fabrics are compared
with a set of nine textile samples coated with copper containing
effect pigments. The original purposes of such textile materials are
• Page 6 of 10 •
Citation: Mahltig B, Darko D, Günther K, Haase H (2015) Copper Containing Coatings for Metallized Textile Fabrics. J Fashion Technol Textile Eng 3:1.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2329-9568.1000118
Figure 5: Spectra of diffuse reflection and diffuse transmission on the UV/Vis/NIR-range of different metallized fabric types.
Figure 6: Spectra of diffuse reflection on the UV/Vis/NIR-range of different coated textiles carrying coatings with different types of metallic effect pigments.
Reference spectra are supported for the related uncoated fabrics.
Volume 3 • Issue 1 • 1000118
• Page 7 of 10 •
Citation: Mahltig B, Darko D, Günther K, Haase H (2015) Copper Containing Coatings for Metallized Textile Fabrics. J Fashion Technol Textile Eng 3:1.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2329-9568.1000118
Figure 7: Spectra of diffuse transmission on the UV/Vis/NIR-range of coated cotton and polyester fabrics carrying coatings with different types of metallic
effect pigments. Reference spectra are supported for the related uncoated cotton and polyester fabrics.
Figure 8: Antibacterial activity of the four investigated metallized polyamide
type A to D in comparison to three different uncoated polyamide reference
fabrics R1,R2 and R3. The antibacterial properties are determined against
the both types of bacteria E.coli and S.aureus.
Figure 9: Antibacterial activity of six reference samples without metal
component. The references are cotton fabric CO, polyester fabric PET and
cotton/polyester blended fabric COPET. These fabrics are investigated as pure
fabric or after coating with the pure acrylate binder. The antibacterial properties
are determined against the both types of bacteria E.coli and S.aureus.
Volume 3 • Issue 1 • 1000118
Figure 10: Antibacterial activity of textile samples with metal pigment
containing acrylate coating. The coatings are performed with the pigments
P1, P2 and P3 on different types of textiles as cotton fabric CO, polyester
fabric PET and cotton/polyester blended fabric COPET. The antibacterial
properties are determined against the both types of bacteria E.coli and
S.aureus.
electric conductivity, EMI-shielding or advanced optical effects. The
textile properties according to reflection and transmission of UVand IR-light are reported and indicating a strong influence of the
metal on those properties. Advantageous properties could be found
here in the fields of radiation protection but also for heat collecting
systems. Although the antimicrobial activity of copper containing
textiles is reported in the literature, not every one of the currently
investigated materials exhibits an antibacterial effect. For some
textile surfaces containing copper alloy even no antimicrobial effect
can be determined. On the other hand the antimicrobial activity can
be significantly enhanced by addition of silver. Therefore, it can be
concluded that for commercially available copper containing systems
on textile a broad range of antimicrobial activity is possible. Properties
as electric conductivity or advanced optical effects are not necessarily
combined with antimicrobial properties, if copper containing
materials are used for textile functionalization. Altogether it can
be concluded, that the application of copper materials onto textile
• Page 8 of 10 •
Citation: Mahltig B, Darko D, Günther K, Haase H (2015) Copper Containing Coatings for Metallized Textile Fabrics. J Fashion Technol Textile Eng 3:1.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2329-9568.1000118
fabrics can lead to advantageous textile materials with many suitable
properties, like radiation protection and antimicrobial activity.
Acknowledgements
20.Mahltig B, Fiedler D, Simon P (2011) Silver-containing sol-gel coatings on
textiles. J Textile Institute 102: 739-745.
21.Mahltig B, Tatlises B, Fahmi A, Haase H (2013) Dendrimer stabilized particles
for the antimicrobial finishing of textiles. J Textile Institute 104: 1042-1048.
For funding of the electromicroscopic equipment the authors acknowledge
very gratefully the program FH-Basis of the German federal country North-RhineWestphalia NRW. For funding of the photospectroscopic equipment the authors
acknowledge very gratefully the department of textile and clothing management
and the master seminar of the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences. For
support of metallic effect pigments the company Eckart GmbH is gratefully
acknowledged and many thanks for helpful and interesting discussions are given
to Dr. P. Wissling. All product and company names mentioned in this article
may be trademarks of their respective owners, also without labeling. The results
presented in the current paper are a part of a broader investigation of effect
pigment coatings on textiles performed by Daniel Darko during his master thesis
(University of Applied Sciences, Mönchengladbach, Germany, spring 2015).
22.Kelly FM, Johnston JH (2011) Colored and functional silver nanoparticle-wool
fiber composites. Appl Mater & Interf 3: 1083-1092.
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Citation: Mahltig B, Darko D, Günther K, Haase H (2015) Copper Containing Coatings for Metallized Textile Fabrics. J Fashion Technol Textile Eng 3:1.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2329-9568.1000118
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Author Affiliations
Top
FTB, Hochschule Niederrhein – University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of
Textile and Clothing Technology, Webschulstr. 31, 41065 Mönchengladbach,
Germany
1
Institute of Immunology, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University,
Pauwelsstr. 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany
2
Technische Universität Berlin, Institut für Lebensmitteltechnologie und
Lebensmittelchemie, Gustav-Meyer Allee 25, 13355 Berlin, Germany
3
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