VOL. 12, NO. 21, NOVEMBER 2017 ISSN 1819-6608 ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences © 2006-2017 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved. www.arpnjournals.com 5947 ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY AND THE HYDROPHOBICITY OF SILVER NANOPARTICLES LOADED FABRICS OF NYLON Eli Rohaeti 1 and Anna Rakhmawati 2 1 Department of Chemistry Education, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Yogyakarta State of University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia 2 Department of Biology Education, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Yogyakarta State of University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia E-Mail: eli_rohaeti@uny.ac.id ABSTRACT The objective of this research is to study antibacterial and hidrophobicity properties of Nylon 6.6 which coated nanoparticles - silver and hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS). The nanoparticle - silver was prepared with chemical reduction method by using tri-sodium citrate as reducing agent and PVA as stabilizer. Nanoparticle - silver is deposited on fabrics of Nylon 6.6 as antibacterial agent and HDTMS is coated on those as hydrophobic agent. The fabrics of Nylon 6.6 are characterized by analyzing the functional groups using ATR-FTIR, hydrophobic properties by measuring contact angle, and antibacteria properties by measuring clear zone. The addition of HDTMS compound can decrease intensity of absorption bands of functional groups but increase hydrophobicity property of Nylon 6.6. Nylon 6.6 which coated nanoparticle silver and HDTMS has the highest antibacterial properties. The antibacterial properties of Nylon 6.6 before and after modification against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 and Escherichia coli 32518 are different. All samples havedemonstrated a clear zone in inhibiting of growing bacteria Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 and Escherichia coli ATCC 35218 at all the incubation time. Keywords: antibacterial, contact angle, HDTMS, Nylon 6.6 fabric, silver nanoparticles. INTRODUCTION Polymeric materials especially textiles have extraordinary range of properties so that become a very important part of our day - to day life. Some applications of textiles include healthcare products and biomedical material made of various forms of textiles. For example, polypropylene is being widely used as support to repair hernias in a surgical procedure [1]. The antibacterial polymers can be developed by loading silver nanoparticles on textile materials, for example on cotton cloth [2], wool [3], polyester [4], polyamide [5] and silk [6] as biomedical material. The prevention of adsorption and growth of microorganisms on textile surfaces is prerequisite for the biomaterials to prevent infections. However, synthetic textiles themselves do not have antibacterial properties. Therefore, antibacterial agents have been used. The chemical agents have been used for inhibiting microorganisms growth, such as silver, copper, and other metal ions. Recently, nanosized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been reported to exhibit antibacterial properties against representative pathogens of bacteria [7]. The silver nanoparticles showed synergistic effect with levofloxacin antibiotic, the antibacterial activity increased by 1.16 - 1.32 fold [8]. Silver nanoparticles can be synthesized via chemical reduction method [9] and green synthesis method [8]. AgNO3 solution is used as the base material and trisodium citrate is used as a reducing agent. In addition, the antibacterial properties of silver nanoparticles is influenced by the particle size, the smaller the size of the silver nanoparticles were more efficient in the antibacterial activity tests. Silver nanoparticles can be coated onto polyurethane foams in diverse forms as an antibacterial water filter and can be washed several times without any loss of nanoparticles [10]. The cotton fabrics incorporated with silver nanoparticles showed no bacterial growth, so that this material can be used to turn sterile fabrics [11]. Superhydrophobic conductive cotton textiles with antibacterial activity were synthesized successfully by in situ coating textiles with AgNPs followed by hydrophobization [12]. This method to multifunctionalizing conventional textiles with combined properties of superhydrophobicity, antibacterial, conductivity, etc. One effort should be made to develop a self- cleaning textile products and antibacterial, by developing a hydrophobic textile material, followed by application of nanoparticles effectively and selectively. The nanoparticles can kill many types of microbes in a broad spectrum, but is not toxic to pathogenic microbes. Textile materials with hydrophobic properties can be obtained by adding silane compound. A modification technique to produce the hydrophobic textile materials is by addition of HDTMS molecules with sufficient hydrocarbon chain length and low surface energy [13].In this research, silver nanoparticles haveprepared by applying the bottom-up approach using reduction process. Then the textile material is coated with silver nanoparticles. Furthermore, the textile material that has been coated by silver nanoparticles, is modified by adding HDTMS to produce hydrophobic textile. MATERIALS AND METHODS Chemicals and instrumentation Nylon 6.6 was purchased from the fabric store in Yogyakarta. Silver nitrate, trisodium citrate, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), ethanol, acetone, and