Abstract Sericin is a valuable protein with unique properties, however it is currently discarded as a waste in silk industry, which leads to economic losses and environmental pollution. This study focuses on the utilisation of recovered waste sericin as a potential antibacterial raw material in textile industry for the first time. Waste sericin was used as a reducing and stabilising agent in the production of sericin/silver nanocomposite samples with a binary reducing agent system containing NaOH and NaBH4. The nanocomposite samples were prepared with three different cross-linkers and applied to cotton fabrics at nanocomposite concentrations of 20 g/L and 40 g/L. The antibacterial performance against Escherichia Coli (E. Coli) and Staphylococcus Aureus (S. Aureus) was good; which remained even at the end of 20 wash cycles. The fabrics exhibited better mechanical properties in the presence of cross-linkers.

中文翻译：

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改进包覆废丝胶/银纳米复合材料的棉织物的抗菌性能

摘要 丝胶是一种有价值的蛋白质，具有独特的性质，但目前在丝绸工业中被作为废物丢弃，造成经济损失和环境污染。本研究首次将回收的废丝胶作为一种潜在的抗菌原料用于纺织工业。废丝胶被用作生产丝胶/银纳米复合材料样品的还原剂和稳定剂，其中含有NaOH和NaBH4的二元还原剂系统。纳米复合材料样品由三种不同的交联剂制备，并以 20 g/L 和 40 g/L 的纳米复合材料浓度应用于棉织物。对大肠杆菌（E.Coli）和金黄色葡萄球菌（S.Aureus）的抗菌性能良好；即使在 20 次洗涤循环结束时仍然如此。