**Surface Modification of Polyester-Fabric with Hydrogels and Silver Nanoparticles: Photochemical Versus Gamma Irradiation Methods**

### **Kathleen A. Montoya-Villegas 1, Alejandro Ramírez-Jiménez 1,2, Ánge<sup>l</sup> Licea-Claverie 1,\*, Sergio Pérez-Sicairos 1, Emilio Bucio 3, Johanna Bernáldez-Sarabia 4 and Alexei F. Licea-Navarro 4**

1 Centro de Graduados e Investigación en Química, Tecnológico Nacional de México/Instituto Tecnológico de Tijuana, Tijuana 22000, Mexico; kathleen.montoya@tectijuana.edu.mx (K.A.M.-V.); alejandro.ramirezj@tectijuana.edu.mx(A.R.-J.);sperez@tectijuana.mx(S.P.-S.)


Received: 28 June 2019; Accepted: 26 July 2019; Published: 10 October 2019

**Abstract:** A Gamma irradiation and photochemical crosslinking/grafting of poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) and poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate) (poly(HEMA-co-PEGMA)) hydrogels onto polyethyleneterephtalate fabric (PET) surfaces were evaluated, in order to obtain a hydrophilic homogeneous coating onto PET fabrics. The materials were characterized by FTIR-ATR, SEM, EDS, and thermal analysis. Furthermore, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were loaded by in situ reduction of AgNO3, and its antibacterial activity against *Staphylococcus aureus* and *Escherichia coli* was determined. Results showed a ticker coating of hydrogel using gamma radiation and stronger in deep modification of the fibers; however, by the photochemical method, a thin coating with good coverage of PET surface was obtained. The di fferences in hydrophilicity, thermal properties, and antibacterial activity of the coated fabrics by using both methods were rather small.

**Keywords:** graft polymerization; surface modification; hydrogels; gamma irradiation; silver nanoparticles; antibacterial activity
