Synthesis of imidazole derivatives and their binderless immobilization to fabric to load antibacterial properties

The compounds bonded with functional groups in textile materials carry the economical support material property. The complex and/or organic compounds with the desired properties can be immobilized into the textile materials by using the reactivity of hydroxyl groups of cellulose and the NH2 groups in wool. Most of commercially purchased silver salts show a rapid release of silver in water because of their ionic structure. For this reason, they exhibit high antibacterial activity but the short-term. N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) complexes have the long-term antibacterial effects by releasing the silver ion into solution gradually. Recently, the studies on the reactions about catalytic activities of silver NHC compounds have also increased. It is aimed to synthesize the light resistant, antibacterial and catalytic effective complex and also to immobilize this complex into the fabric by considering the light sensitivity of silver compounds. In the light of this information, synthesis, physical properties, and antimicrobial activities of imidazole based 1,3-disubstitue imidazolium silver (I) complexes have been targeted.
The structure of synthesized compounds was determined by FTIR, NMR. The light stability of the complexes and antibacterial effectivities was investigated, then the complexes which are stable to light and exhibit antibacterial effectivity was immobilized to wool fibers with functional groups of the complexes. The immibolization was created with chemical bonding between the wool fabric and the synthesized compounds. The metal content of the immobilized complexes was analyzed by ICP and their surface characterization was identified by SEM. After the measurements of antibacterial effectivity and washing durability of immobilized complexes, color changing which is a general problem of silver compounds was measured using spectrophotometer. The antibacterial effectivities of the modified fibers were investigated by quantitative method at pre-washing and after sequence washings.