Large amounts of microorganisms stuck tountreated fabric samples

Tag : fire-resistant fabric
It's ideal for firefighters, police and other emergency workersbecause it's light, strong and fire resistant and now researchersplan to make Kevlar that will fight germs.

At the University of South Dakota, Yuyu Sun and Jie Luo havedeveloped a new method to coat Kevlar with a substance calledacyclic N-Halamine. They tested it against E. coli, Staphylococcusaureus, Candida tropicalis (a fungus), MS2 virus, and Bacillussubtilis spores (to mimic anthrax).

After a short time, large amounts of microorganisms stuck tountreated fabric samples, but the coated fabrics showed little tono adherence of the infectious agents. The coating is long-lastingand can be reactivated if needed, the scientist will report in theAug. 6 issue of the American Chemical Society's journal Industrial& Engineering Chemistry Research.

"The resultant fabric materials provided potent, durable, andrechargeable biocidal activities," the researchers write."The excellent thermal and mechanical properties of theoriginal Kevlar fabrics were successfully retained after thecoating treatment."

The PMAA-based coating, as it's called, is said to haveantibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and antispore functions.

"Although more studies are needed to further evaluate theeffectiveness of the coated Kevlar fabrics," the researcherswrite, "these findings point to the great potential of thePMAA-based coating approach for a broad range of real applications.