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More than just a precious metal, silver has been put to practical use throughout the history of civilisation. Ancient Egyptians and Romans used silver to line water vessels, the pioneering settlers of the USA dropped silver dollars in their water barrels to prevent the build up of bacterial and fungal growth and silver foil has been used to dress wounds since the early 1800’s. Nowadays, practical uses of silver are ubiquitous and it can be found in applications ranging from water purification in spacecraft to infection control fabrics in hospital uniforms. The most common ways of introducing silver ions into a product are with either silver salts, such as silver nitrate, or through colloidal or nanoparticulate silver. However, in many real world environments neither of them can guarantee to deliver a sufficient quantity of silver ions, nor do so in a controlled and consistent manner. CorGlaes® is a sodium calcium phosphate glass that dissolves completely and harmlessly in any aqueous solution. When an active metal such as silver is included in its manufacture to create CorGlaes® Ag it becomes part of the molecular structure and is held there until the CorGlaes® is exposed to an aqueous solution. The metal ions are then released at the required concentration through precise control of the dissolution rate of the glass, and therefore of the release rate of the metal ions. CorGlaes® can be formulated to deliver metal ions over periods ranging from seconds to years. CorGlaes® Ag is part of the CorGlaes® Active range – a powerful antimicrobial that delivers pure silver ions precisely at the point of need. |
