Biocide squirting from an elastomeric tri-layer film

Protective layers typically act in a passive way by simply separating two sides. Protection is only efficient as long as the layers are intact. If a high level of protection has to be achieved by thin layers, complementary measures need to be in place to ensure safety, even after breakage of the lay...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNature materials Vol. 3; no. 5; pp. 311 - 315
Main Authors Sonntag, Philippe, Hoerner, Pierre, Cheymol, André, Argy, Gilles, Riess, Gérard, Reiter, Günter
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Nature Publishing Group 01.05.2004
Subjects
Accident Prevention
Anti-Bacterial Agents - administration & dosage
Anti-Bacterial Agents - chemistry
Biocides
Boundary layers
Coated Materials, Biocompatible - chemistry
Decontamination - instrumentation
Decontamination - methods
Disinfectants - administration & dosage
Disinfectants - chemistry
Drug Delivery Systems - instrumentation
Drug Delivery Systems - methods
Elastomers - chemistry
Equipment Design
Equipment Failure Analysis
Fabrication
Gloves
Gloves, Protective
Materials Testing
Membrane Fluidity
Membranes, Artificial
Models, Chemical
Molecular Conformation
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Summary:Protective layers typically act in a passive way by simply separating two sides. Protection is only efficient as long as the layers are intact. If a high level of protection has to be achieved by thin layers, complementary measures need to be in place to ensure safety, even after breakage of the layer-an important issue in medical applications. Here, we present a novel approach for integrating a biocide liquid into a protective film (about 300-500 μm thick), which guarantees that a sufficient amount of biocide is rapidly released when the film is punctured. The film is composed of a middle layer, containing the liquid in droplet-like compartments, sandwiched between two elastomeric boundary layers. When the film is punctured, the liquid squirts out of the middle layer. A theoretical model was used to determine the size and density of droplets that are necessary to ensure a sufficient quantity of biocide is expelled from an adequately elastic matrix to provide protection at the site of damage. We demonstrate the utility of this approach for the fabrication of surgical gloves.
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ISSN:1476-1122
1476-4660
DOI:10.1038/nmat1113