Antimicrobial equipment
The Antimicrobial feature is a relatively new procedure to textiles to edit so that bacteria and fungi are inhibited in their growth. Bacteria on the skin multiply very quickly in the presence of sweat and cause unpleasant odors .
The process is used by some manufacturers in the production of sports socks that are particularly affected by sweating. Other areas of application are sportswear, incontinence pads, camping equipment.
There are various methods of antimicrobial finishing :
- Silver threads are wrapped around a second carrier thread during twisting . The silver thread also has a cooling effect when worn in a textile on the body.
- During melt spinning , silver ions can be added to the liquid polymer melt. This creates synthetic fibers that, in addition to their ability to wick away moisture quickly, also inhibit odor formation. Since the silver ions are contained in the fiber, they are not washed out as quickly as when they adhere to the surface.
- The finished textile can be treated with bactericidal substances. However, these are washed out relatively quickly.
- According to the latest research, special algae ( Chlorella vulgaris , Spirulina platensis, Lithothamnium calcareum and brown algae ) can be used, which are able to coat metal ions. These algae-metal complexes, bound in a sol-gel matrix, can be applied to textiles. Treatment with an active ingredient extracted from neem oil is also possible.
With the antimicrobial agents on textiles offered on the market, it is important to ensure that they diffuse or remain on the goods. Non-diffusing agents can be tested for their effect using the Dynamic Shake Flash Test . Diffusing agents, on the other hand, can be tested by the agar diffusion test. Such agents form a zone of inhibition in the bacterial culture in the Petri dish .
criticism
In addition to the considerable environmental impact of the chemicals used, which include quaternary ammonium compounds, bisphenols, imidazoles, diphenyl ethers, thiobisphenols, organic tin compounds, salicylanilide derivatives, neomycin sulphate, ethylene glycol, chlorometacreosols, diethyl phthalate and diphenylantimony hexoate, the antimicrobial treatment often causes .
Web links
- Federal Institute for Risk Assessment: Introduction to the problem of clothing textiles (PDF; 423 kB)
- Antimicrobial Textiles PDF file
- Hohenstein researchers are conducting field studies on the influence of antibacterial clothing on skin flora and microclimate
- Active substance-coated fibers
Individual evidence
- ↑ Antimicrobial equipment , at textil-mode.de, accessed on May 18, 2017.
- ↑ Peggy Freede: High-tech textiles as a secret weapon against stinky feet , at welt.de, accessed on May 18, 2017.
- ↑ Antimicrobial fibers by fixation of modified algae materials , at haute-innovation.com, accessed on May 18, 2017.
- ↑ Textile researchers from North Rhine-Westphalia succeeded in developing antimicrobial and fungicidal equipment without the use of metallic nanoparticles , at textilforschung.de, accessed on May 18, 2017.
- ↑ /TreviraBioactive.pdf incontinence pad ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , for incontinence pads, accessed on May 18, 2017.
- ^ Textile finishing , at Medizinfo.de, accessed on May 18, 2017.
- ↑ Antimicrobial equipment , at hessnatur.com, accessed on May 18, 2017.
