Potent environmental-friendly virucidal medical textiles against coronavirus to combat infections during the COVID-19 pandemic

The sudden outburst of Coronavirus disease 19 or COVID-19 has raised serious awareness about viral contamination on the environment, which is one of the major causes of the disease. Transmission via contaminated surfaces has been recognized as a significant route for spreading the virus. To suppress and control the spread of SARS-CoV-2, potent virucidal finishing agents for decontamination of medical textiles are urgently required. In this study, an environmental-friendly, economical, non-toxic, and practical finishing on medical textiles with potent virucidal activity was proposed with the combined concepts of a new green synthesis of TiO₂@Ag core-shell nanostructures using ascorbic acid reduction and UV-curing process. In order to evaluate efficiency of virucidal activity, effects of the amount of TiO₂@Ag NPs and contact time were determined against the coronavirus following ISO 18184:2019 standard. The finishing agent exhibited an excellent 99.9% virucidal efficacy. The stability of virucidal activity and mechanical properties were determined under repeated washing. The finished fabrics had the ability to retain their virucidal activity and tensile strength through 20 washes. The results suggested that the finishing agent had great potential as a potent and non-toxic virucide against the coronavirus for medical textile applications.