Silvering of inert polyethylene terephthalate textile materials: The factors of adjustment on silver release, part II

The aim of this research is to develop a textile product to prevent and eliminate biological contaminations in drinking water and other liquid-leading systems. Herein, the adjustment of the silver release from silvered textile materials with the retention of the antibactericidal qualities has been studied. The limited values for silver in drinking water in Germany (100 mu g/l) must be considered as well. Moreover, the factors of the adjustment of the silver release, such as the concentration of the silver on the one hand and the reduction agent, the silvering process, the thermal fixation time and temperature, the size of the silver particles, and the thickness of the silver layer on the surface of textile materials for the silvering on the other hand have been systematically examined by using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) materials as a basis. Silver concentration in the elution has been detected by means of atom absorption spectroscopy (ZEEnit 700, Analytics Jena, Germany). The amount of silver taken up by PET was weighed after was under a constant heat of 900 degrees C for 4 h.