Fabrication of drug-release systems

Various methodologies are employed in the immobilisation of bioactive agents and dmgs onto the textile surfaces. In this chapter the most commonly techniques, i.e., coating and encapsulation, shall be discussed in more detail. 

Dispersion coating is a process in which polymer dispersions, such as latexes, are applied, metered, and dried so that they form a uniform, non-porous film on the surface of the textile. 

Often drug-coated fabrics can release a significant amount of drug immediately following their employment and this makes these textiles unsuitable for applications where extended and prolonged dmg release is needed. In these situations it is also difficult to ensure that the coated microcapsules remain attached to the fabric surface. Therefore it is important to develop methods to overcome this problem and several approaches have been adopted to resolve this issue. For example, Ma et al. coated cotton fabrics with a paste formulation comprising dmg microcapsules and adhesives (Ma et al., 2009). This reduced the initial sudden release of the dmg and allowed release of the loaded dmg over a prolonged period of time. Studies have also been 

Another useful coating technique is based on plasma treatments that can change the properties of the textile surface radically. Hot plasma treatments are mainly used for the modification of materials that are stable at high temperature such as metals and ceramics and therefore are not suitable for the treatment of polymer-based materials such as textiles. However, cold plasma treatments can be carried out at temperatures ranging from ambient up to 100 °C and can be used for the treatment of textile like materials. These treatments are basically of two types plasma treatments with 

The encapsulation approach basically involves dissolution of the polymer and the active ingredient in a common solvent followed by spinning of the solution into fibres by suitable techniques. The technique makes it possible to load the fibre with the 

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