| 摘要 |
PURPOSE: To obtain an antimicrobial agent capable of exhibiting an antimicrobial activity as strong as a conventional agent with a small amount of silver and at the same time less expensive by making silver supported with the surface of a specific spherical particle. CONSTITUTION: Nonporous fine spherical particles of silica is prepared by the self burning of metallic silicon powder in an oxygen flow. Silver is supported with the surface of the particles in a dispersed state by plating silver on the surfaces of the particles or mixing the particles with fine silver powder. The average particle diameter of the silica particles is preferably 0.2-2μm. In this antimicrobial agent, the silver is carried only on the surfaces of the fine spherical silica particles, and accordingly almost all of the carried silver exhibits antimicrobial activity. This gives sufficient antimicrobial activity with a small amount of silver, and enables the cost reduction. Since the spherical silica particle is nonporous, the antimicrobial agent can keep a liquid state even at a high concentration up to about 70wt.% when it is mixed with a liquid such as water. This allows to increase the mixing concentration with the material of an article, and to obtain high antimicrobial activity and at the same time to give excellent workability during the manufacturing of an article.
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