As consumer education level is ever increasing, consumers are becoming more and more health conscious and they have been more careful towards their living conditions than previously and this care towards hygienic living is bound to grow in coming times.

According to one of the studies in US out of every four Americans, three are conscious of germs in their daily lives. This study indicated that 61% of the women surveyed make an extra effort to buy anti-bacterial or anti-microbial products. These studies have indicated that the market is ready for anti-microbial products and the demand for anti-microbial products will increase by many folds.

Conventionally, anti-microbials used to work on the principle of leaching, i.e., moving from the surface on which they are applied. This is the mechanism where anti-microbial moves towards micro-organism and poison them. The principle of their approaching to micro-organisms prevented them to be used in the garments or textiles initially, as they tend to move and cross the skin barriers and poison the useful skin micro-organisms.

However, now in garments and textiles a different method is being used based on molecular bonding technology where the anti-microbials, Organofunctional Silanes, with anti-microbials are bonded with the garments and micro-organisms reaching the fabric surface are killed. These anti-microbials function like swords on microbes when they come in the contact of surface of treated fabric, physically rupturing micro-organisms then electrocuting by a +ve charged Nitrogen molecule.

Advantages

-No adaptive micro-organisms are formed

-No transfer of anti-microbial agents through the skin barrier preventing the potential damage to useful skin micro-organisms.

Applied in a single stage of wet finish process the attachment of this technology to surface leads to a very rapid process coating the substrate with the cationic species one molecule deep. This is an ion exchange process by which the cation of Silane Quaternary Ammonium compound replaces proton from water on the surface. The second mechanism is unique to material such as Silane Quat Ammonium compounds which have a silanonal functionality enabling them to polymerize to become permanent on the surface even where they cannot react covalently.

Once polymerized, the treatment does not create a zone of inhibition disabling the mechanism to cause adaptive micro-organisms. To further benefit the customers, anti-microbial manufacturers should use a treatment that provides non-leaching anti-microbials having no risk of adaptive micro-organism and zeroing the risk of anti-microbials crossing the skin barrier.

Team S&A