nickel copper zinc silver and or gold rare earth metals from the lanthanides such as cerium neodymium samarium gadolinium terbium dysprosium holmium and or erbium and or alkali metals such as lithium sodium potassium magnesium and or calcium the combination may comprise a binary combination ternary combination quaternary combination or even higher order combination the selected alloys and the relative percentages of each alloy may be selected depending on the intended use of the fiber or other selection criteria different combinations will result in different anti microbial classes that may be used with the present invention for example different classes of anti microbial alloys have been produced by quartek corporation as described in various patent applications u s provisional application nos 60 888 343 and 60 821 497 filed on aug 4 2006 and u s patent application ser nos 11 868 475 filed on oct 6 2007 11 858 157 filled on sep 20 2007 and 11 671 675 filed on feb 6 2007 these anti microbial alloys have been produced by varying the elemental composition of the alloys the elemental ratios within the same alloy or by changing parameters in the synthesis process as needed these anti microbial alloys may be synthesized in various size ranges from 5 nm to.