ANTIBACTERIAL METALLIZED FABRICS

Val Dubin Uncategorized 17 Comments

The coronavirus will leave an enormous impact on how we consume, learn, work, socialize and communicate. This pandemic has also shown us how important PPE (personal protection equipment) is in fighting the deadly contagious diseases such COVID-19. Wearing a protective facemask, especially for medical professionals who are in the forefront of the fight against the COVID-19, truly becomes a matter of life and death.

NANO3D has invented and filed a patent application for Antiviral and Antibacterial Covering. NANO3D’s patent pending antiviral and/or antibacterial covering contains metals such as silver, copper, and gold infused within various fabric blends such as nylon, polyester, and cotton. One of the embodiments of this invention is related to the use of copper conductive fabric in a sandwich of fabrics to make a facemask. The wearers of such facemasks can enjoy not only filtration protection from particulates (i.e., pathogens, allergens, dust, smoke, pollution et al), but also they will have profound antimicrobial and antiviral protection.

Copper surfaces have intrinsic properties to destroy a wide range of microorganisms including bacteria and viruses:
• The first recorded medical use of copper is from one of the oldest-known books, the Smith Papyrus, written between 2600 and 2200 B.C. It stated that copper was used to sterilize chest wounds and drinking water. Egyptian and Babylonian soldiers would similarly put the shavings from their bronze swords into their open wounds to reduce infections. Also hundreds of employees who worked in a copper smelter in Paris had all been spared from cholera outbreaks that hit the city in 1832, 1849, and 18521.
• Inactivation of influenza A Virus was studied on copper versus stainless steel surfaces. After incubation for 24 h on stainless steel, 500,000 virus particles were still infectious while after incubation for 6 h on copper, only 500 particles were active (citation: https://aem.asm.org/content/73/8/2748).
• U.S. government-funded study conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, remained viable for up to 2 to 3 days on plastic and stainless steel surfaces vs. up to 4 hours on copper (citation: https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2004973).
• Copper alloy materials are registered by EPA (Reg. Nos. 82012-1 to 6) to make public health claims against six specific bacteria’s, e.g. continuously kills >99.9% of MRSA within 2 hours of contact between routine cleanings.
• Our bacterial survival data showed that no E.Coli bacteria survived after 1 hour incubation on the surface of copper fabric while large number of E.Coli bacteria survived after 4 hours incubation on Stainless Steel. In addition to copper, silver is also known for its antibacterial properties. For example, stretchy Ag fabrics are commonly used in wound dressing wraps. For more information on metallized fabrics, visit https://nano3dsystems.com/product-category/conductive-fabrics/.