Q-284. A New Generation of Antimicrobial Material
This project was designed to study the antimicrobial property of a new generation of synthetic fiber with built-in silver-and-inorganic antimicrobial additives. The fiber is made from recycled plastic. Multiple experiments were conducted to test its ability to kill different genera of pathogenic bacteria. Test organisms were chosen to represent a broad spectrum of bacteria capable of airborne transmission and ability to survive a prolonged period of time on fomites, i.e. Streptococcus pyogenes (ATCC 19615), Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (ATCC 700698), Legionella pneumophila (ATCC 33152), Haemophilus influenza (ATCC 35056). Test fabrics that contained different percentages of incorporated silver-and inorganic complex were inoculated with the test bacteria and placed in 50mL sterile centrifuge tubes, incubated at 37°C with 35% humidity. Bacteria were then assayed by the spread plate method on appropriate agar and incubated at 37°C. After incubation period, colonies were counted and log reduction was calculated. Untreated fiber was used as controls. After one hour exposure time, log reduction on test material "3M" resulted in >5.4 for S. pyogenes, 4.4 for MRSA, >5.8 for L. pneumophilla, and >5.8 for H. influenza. Fiber 3M reduced all of the test bacteria to greater than 99.99% in one hour. This fiber can be used to make hospital scrubs, clothing, bed sheets, face masks and any other material where bacterial control is needed.