Antibacterial activity of sulfonated styrene-grafted polypropylene fabric and its metallic salt

Antibacterial activities of sulfonated styrene-grafted polypropylene fabric and its metallic complexes against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus , and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were evaluated by a viable cell counting metho d. After styrene was grafted to polypropylene fabric, a sulfonation reactio n was carried out. Various metals were introduced to the sulfonated styrene -grafted polypropylene fabric to evaluate their antibacterial activities. A g complex of sulfonated styrene-grafted polypropylene fabric (3.95 mM SO3H/ g) had a strong biocidal effect to kill all bacteria within 30 minutes. Fro m the antibacterial activity of the metallic salts of sulfonated-grafted PP fabric, it was found that Ag complexed fabric had strong biocidal effects for all bac-teria and the other metal complexed fabrics had different antib acterial activity depending on each bacterium.