Novel Dendrimers for Antimicrobial Textile Finish

The US Department of Defense identified a continuing need for antimicrobial textiles to provide a range of capabilities such as integration in Soldier uniforms to control odor or in medical textiles to control the transmission of pathogenic bacteria. Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to functionalize fabrics with novel antimicrobial dendrimers. These compounds will be used as a textile finish in a one-step process and will provide a high concentration of the antimicrobials on the surface of the fabric thus increasing the biocidal effectiveness. In addition, the proposed process will prevent leachable materials from being produced and will not lead to degradation of fabric properties. On a potential Phase II program, PSI will expand the use of this technology for multiple fabrics and will provide additional characterization of the finish. In addition, PSI will investigate the scale up of this technology to design high throughput process that will allow large volumes of fabrics to be treated with the antimicrobial finish.