TOKYO – Academics at the University of Tokyo claim to have developed cost-effective methods of treating textiles with a transparent, silver-based antimicrobial solution.
The team, which has studied polyphenols – a compound found in products like chocolate and wine – for more than a decade, took inspiration from incidents in their own lives in which such food has stained their clothing.
They went on to develop two ways in which tannic acid (TA), a type of polyphenol, can be used in tandem with silver to impart antimicrobial properties on fabric.
