Silver-coated, antibacterial textiles are becoming increasingly popular among athletes and in medicine. Scientists from the Institute of Material Sciences and Technology Development Empa, Dübendorf / Switzerland have investigated whether and how different silver coatings behave in the washing machine and discovers that textiles with nano-coating leave fewer nanoparticles in the wash water than normal coated.
In addition, silver-coated nanofabrics generally lose less silver in the wash, because with a nano-coating substantially less of silver incorporated into the textile, and it is dosed for the antibacterial activity released than in conventional coatings