Conductive nylon fabric through in situ synthesis of nano-silver: Preparation and characterization.

A simple, green and low cost method based on Tollens' reagent is presented to synthesize a nano-conductive silver layer on nylon 6 fabric. The nylon fabric was first treated with potassium permanganate to oxidize fabric surface and thereby, increasing the number of assembled particles on the fabric surface. SEM images indicated distribution of silver nanoparticles on the fabric surface and formation of nanolayer on the fiber surface. EDX and XRD patterns confirmed assembling silver nanoparticles on the nylon fibers. The treated fabrics displayed a very low electrical resistivity i.e. 4.5Ω/sq. Furthermore, the fabric color was indicated by a reflectance spectrophotometer in order to study the effects of the synthesized nanoparticles on the fabric color. It is also indicated that oxidation process has no significant influence on the mechanical properties of the fabric, and nano-treatment revenged the negative effect of oxidation of nylon fabric. Moreover, silver nanoparticles imparted reasonable antibacterial properties to the fabric against Staphylococcus aureus.