Professor Jiang Jen Lin of the Institute of Polymer Science and Engineering recently invented a nano silicon slice named "Silver Bullet 900". This innovative material is non-toxic and highly antimicrobial. Research has proved that the Silver Bullet 900 can effectively inhibit a variety of bacteria and can be regarded as a powerful weapon against influenza virus.

In 2003 Professor Lin refined a 100x100z1nm3 nano silicon slice from natural clay. The surface area of one gram of nano silicon slice equals the size of two basketball courts, roughly 750 meters. And one silicon slice has 180,000 negative charge, which can absorb all kinds of viruses and biological molecules. The silicon slice's ability to inhibit viruses had been made public during the onslaught of SARS. Professor Lin currently takes one step further to develop a composite material—Silver Bullet 900, which is produced by combining sheet shaped silicon slice with spherical shaped nano silver. Silver Bullet 900 is formed by combining the surface of nano silicon with 6-8 nano silver particles that are 25 nanometers in diameter. Each nano silver particles contains 4.35 x 106 silver atoms. The result of this research has been published in an international journal.

The silver ion bactericides sold on the market have the ability to kill viruses, but silver ions tend to be absorbed in human tissues, and they will accumulate in the human body to induce silver poisoning. After long use silver ions will lead to the bacteria's resistance to drugs, resulting in their becoming unsuitable for treatment. For example, the drug resistant MRSA bacteria often cause difficulty for medical treatment of infections. Under the support from NTU's Pilot Project to Promote University/Industry Cooperation, Professor Lin collaborated with Professor Peng of the Institute of Toxicology, Dr. Chu from NTU Hospital's Department of Dermatology, and Professor Su from the Department of Life Sciences of Chung-Hsin University, and has completed the animal experiment to prove that Silver Bullet 900 has dual functions—to capture and kill bacteria. Moreover, it has a rapid curing effect for infections caused by skin burns with no side effects, and can significantly eliminate MRSA and silicon ion resistant bacteria. Silicon Bullet 900 is low-cytotoxic, and non genotoxic (70 ppm concentration in DNA comet test). This technology has been transferred over to A.T.P. Co., Ltd. in its first phase of development, in the future other companies intend to apply it to produce general textiles, face masks, protective garments for medical use, etc., and it can also be used to produce disinfectants to be sprayed directly into the environment to replace pesticides and to prevent dengue fever.