Fabrics and Bacteria Science Fair Projects

Fighting Bacteria

Fibers are often selected based on their durability factors. One of these factors is the ability to decrease the growth potential of bacteria.

Test bacteria on any surface with the Surface Microbes Science Fair Projects Kit: after hand sanitizer, hands, disinfectant.. for example. You can use antibiotics to test the bacteria too.

Anytime you want to test how many bacteria are On Top of a surface like a desk, skin, chicken, computer keyboard, bread dough, a hard piece of chocolate, cheese, inside of an animal's cheek, etc. then use the surface experimenter kit. The kit will let you calculate how many bacteria there are per unit surface area on the object. You can also test for e-coli, however, only the microbe water kit will let you distinguish e. coli from other coliforms and bacteria.

Objectives/Goals

My project was to determine if different fabrics would inhibit bacteria from getting to the skin. I simulated a sneeze onto different types of fabrics. (clothing)

Methods/Materials

I used a nutrient broth that was inoculated with bacillus subtillus. (Bacillus was obtained from the high school) The bacterial broth was put into a sterilized spray bottle.
I then obtained different materials. (Cotton , wool, silk, and polyester) These were cut into 6in by 6 in squares. The squares were placed over a Petri Dish with nutrient agar.
I sprayed one pump of the bacillus over the material from exactly 6 in away (simulated sneeze)
Repeated for each material and control (no material over petri dish)
3 trials for each fabric. I let the bacteria grow for 7 days. I counted bacterial colonies and compared results.

Results

After1 week, polyester proved to be the material that inhibited the most growth. an average 46.67 colonies. Next was cotton with 90 colonies, then silk with 223.34, and last was wool with 263.34. These were all pretty good next to the control. The control was 606.67

Conclusions/Discussion

I learned that polyester was the best material in protecting bacteria from passing through to your skin. If you had a young child,this type of clothing could possibly help protect from direct sneezes. Cotton also helped protect the skin. Polyester is the only man made fabric that I tested. 3rd party contributor

Fabric science fair projects unlock the reason why some fabrics last longer than others.