Quality of Cotton and cotton/elastane Single Jersey Knitted Fabrics before and after Softening and in Situ Synthesis of Cu-based Nanoparticles

The quality of cotton and cotton/elastane single jersey knitted fabrics before and after softening was evaluated through their mechanical properties, pilling, and volume electrical resistivity. Elastane-containing fabrics have higher bursting elongation and stiffness, lower bursting strength, the same or higher pilling grade, and 23–27% lower electrical resistivities compared to 100% cotton due to the increased compactness that enables better contact between the loops, and easier flow of charge through them. Softening does not affect or slightly improves the fabric pilling (up to 1000 cycles); it decreases fabrics’ stiffness and increases their bursting strength and electrical resistivities. The last one was significantly decreased after the in situ synthesis of Cu-based nanoparticles on fabrics’ surfaces. Namely, fabrics were first treated with sodium alginate whose carboxylate groups crosslinked Cu2+-ions (from CuSO4 solution) that were further reduced with ascorbic acid. In situ synthesis of Cu-based nanoparticles (detected by FESEM) improves the fabrics’ quality and enables obtaining multifunctional fabrics having 3.4–9.6 times lower resistivities, which are in line with the content of Cu after reduction (determined using ICP-OES), up to 2.5 times higher antioxidant activity and provided maximum microbial reduction for E. Coli, S. aureus, and C. albicans.