Various methods, depending on the particular active agent and fiber type, have been developed or are under development to confer antimicrobial activity to textiles.

For synthetic fibers, the antimicrobial active agents can be incorporated into the polymer prior to extrusion or blended into the fibers during their formation. Such processing provides the best durability as the active agent is physically embedded in the structure of the fiber and released slowly during use. This method of fabrication has been adopted by some manufacturers, such as the silver-containing Bioactive® polyester fibers developed by Trevira and the triclosan-containing Silfresh® cellulose acetate fibers manufactured by Novaceta.

The conventional exhaust and pad-dry-cure processes have been used for antimicrobial finishing on natural as well as synthetic fibers for the biocides such as triclosan

 

Padding, spraying and foam finishing have been used for the silicone-based quaternary agents .

 

Many other methods have been reported, such as the use of nanosized colloidal solutions , nanoscale shell-core particles, chemical modification of the biocide for covalent bond formation with the fiber, crosslinking of the active agent onto the fiber using a crosslinker and polymerization grafting .

 

An emerging method for antimicrobial finishing is to use the sol-gel process which allows the fabrication of materials with a large variety of properties: ultra-fine powders, monolithic ceramics and glasses, ceramic fibers, inorganic membranes, thin film coatings and aerogels. Sol-gel has been extensively explored for applications such as coating. It is claimed that sol-gel technology can enable the coating of textiles with almost unlimited functionality by incorporating functional agents into the sol-gel nanoparticles. With regards to antimicrobial ability, several biocides have been encapsulated in sol-gel particles which are then coated onto textile products to provide the desired functionality.