The solution sprayed on fabrics and clothes can permanently give them antibacterial properties, informs the BBC News / Technology website.
Fabrics with antibacterial properties – for example, anti-odor socks – have been known for a long time, but the appropriate chemicals must already be applied in the production process. On the other hand, the solution developed by the team of Dr. Jason Locklin from the University of Georgia, it is enough to spray it on the finished fabric – synthetic or natural, so that even after many washes at high temperature it is an ungrateful substrate for the growth of bacteria.
Shoes, carpets and plastic products can also be treated in a similar way. The method is inexpensive and can be used, among others, in hospitals – it protects, for example, against staphylococci, streptococci, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas or Acinetobacter bacteria. Some of these microbes cause disease, others only damage fabrics, cause stains or bad odors.
Doctors’ gowns, surgical gloves, sheets – all these can be carriers of dangerous microbes in hospitals or hotels. It is calculated that every twentieth patient hospitalized in the USA becomes infected in the hospital (PAP).