Indeed, we've seen it used in keyboards, built into water filtration systems and deployed in washing machines as a means of fending off germs. The latest effort to harness the bacteria-fighting qualities of silver comes from researchers at Australia's RMIT University working with scientists from the CSIRO, who have developed an antibacterial fabric capable of killing off E. coli and other infectious bacteria within 10 minutes of contact.

 

The team developed the antibacterial fabric by embedding sets of nanowires loaded with silver-TCNQ into a cotton textile. After being coated in a silver solution, the nanoarrays began to slowly release silver-ions that killed off bacteria as they came into contact.

"The fabric can be built into most materials, such as cotton or nylon," Vipul Bansal, Associate Professor at RMIT's School of Applied Sciences and leader of the research team tells Gizmag. "And from there it is a simple step. We took a T-shirt and dipped it into the silver solution under some controlled conditions to enable the nanowires. It then killed off the bacteria within 10 minutes of being exposed to the organisms."