US Patent 8191162 - Anti-Microbial Compounds Used in Garments for Water Based Activities
The invention includes compounds used to manufacture garments for use in water based activities that have a rubber, synthetic rubber, or neoprene compound. The compound is primarily polychloroprene or other suitable polymers and at least one metal of nanoparticle size. The compound composition includes a metal concentration that is sufficient to provide anti-bacterial properties that retard or eliminate bacterial growth on any surface of the composition used to produce the garment. The composition may include a sub-micron metal composition including sub-micron sized silver, zinc oxide, aluminum oxide and boron nitride particles as well as a polyol ester, wherein the thermal conductance of the aforementioned submicron composition is >350,000 W/m2° C. for a 0.001 inch layer of the aforementioned metal composition, the thermal resistance is <0.0045° C.-in2/Watt for a 0.001 inch layer of the aforementioned metal composition, and the average particle size is <0.49 microns for a <0.000020 inch layer of the aforementioned metal composition.
