"Dressed to kill" may take on a whole new meaning with clothes designed to obliterate viruses and bacteria like staph and E. coli. Two researchers are developing textiles with pore sizes small enough to also block blood-borne pathogens like HIV and hepatitis but big enough to still allow perspiration out. What's more, the pair has found a way to dramatically dress up the protection by grafting polymer molecules containing chlorine onto these textiles. That addition—akin to infusing textile fibers with the disinfectant found in swimming pools—ends up zapping Staphylococcus aureus, influenza, and other persistent killers. Some 90,000 people die from hospital infections alone every year, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.

"We're trying to provide both biological and chemical protection for a situation where you need protection, but not at the most severe level," says Kay Obendorf, professor of fiber science at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and a specialist in the surface chemisty of fibers. "If you're in a low- to moderate-toxicity situation, you would like to have clothing that will protect you but also provide breathability."

These days, Obendorf, who developed the special fibers, and Gang Sun, professor of textiles and clothing at the University of California, Davis and the brains behind the method for attaching the chlorine-laced molecules, are turning their attention to improving safety for agriculture workers. Agriculture is ranked as one of the most hazardous industries in the world, with up to 20,000 cases of pesticide poisoning reported annually in the U.S. alone, according to World Health Organization statistics. What they're working on is finding the right oxidizer that will make a pesticide like aldicarb go "poof," just as the chlorine-containing molecules called halamines do to nasty bacteria.

The National Textile Center, a textile research consortium of eight universities, has given Sun and Obendorf a grant of about $300,000 to develop the smart fabrics, which can be continuously "reactivated" by a dip in diluted Clorox. "This is something that provides chemical and biological protection that is permanently bonded directly to the fabric and can be regenerated with chlorine bleach," says Marty Jacobs, executive director of the National Textile Center based in Spring House, Pennsylvania. Jacobs says it typically takes anywhere from three to five years for research developments to show up in clothing, but that some of the pair's ideas are already in use.

Many Innovations
Clothing that does more than look nice is nothing new. Several decades ago, chemical engineer Bill Gore figured out that by manipulating polymers, you could make breathable but highly protective membranes. Windproof, waterproof, and breathable Gore-Tex fabric was the result. Since then, there have been many innovations. Take Scranton, Pennsylvania-based Noble Biomaterials, which applied the antimicrobial properties of silver by bonding the metal to the surface of textiles, creating a fabric called X-static that fights fungi and bacteria. It's now used to make shoes for diabetics, among many other applications. Meantime, other companies are working on smart clothing embedded with tiny sensors that can monitor vital health data and relay the results wirelessly to doctors.

What's novel about Sun and Obendorf's work is the combination of the porous membranes with the bacteria-killing molecules containing chlorine. "This is the chemical widely used in swimming pools," says Sun. "It functions like chlorine and kills all the bacteria, viruses, fungus, and spores." Sun licensed the technology to Bothell, Washington-based HaloSource, which in turn has used it to develop antimicrobial products for hospitals, like bed linens, under pads, and other products.

Broader Applications
Seeing the potential for broader applications, Sun in 2005 teamed up with Obendorf, who was working on stretching or casting polymeric materials in such a way that they would become microporous, or have tiny pores. She also experimented with using nanoscale fibers by a process called electro-spinning, which essentially involves applying an electrical charge to a polymer in a specialized process that forms a very fine fiber. In all cases, the end result was pretty much the same: a membrane with pores big enough to allow perspiration to escape—a water molecule is only three atoms—but small enough to lock out larger molecules of pathogens and biological agents. "Air is tiny compared to nerve gas," Sun says.

A current focus is developing the fabrics to protect agricultural workers from pesticides. But the clothing could also end up being used by soldiers, medical workers, and public safety personnel like firefighters. "Sometimes firefighters respond to calls for a fire when it actually might be a toxic situation, and they don't come in full protective gear," says Obendorf. These textiles "would give them some level of protection."

Nowadays, the only real option for firefighters, farm workers, and others seeking serious protection is a haz-mat suit. Because the suit is a fully sealed plastic system, a person can tolerate wearing it only for about 45 minutes, Sun says, hardly a good option for an ag worker who must spend long days toiling in hot fields.

It's doubtful that Sun and Obendorf's creations will make it onto Anna Wintour's radar. "I don't know whether it will be fashionable, but at least it will be wearable," Sun says. And that's plenty good enough when health and safety are at stake."