Porous glass fibers with immobilized biochemically active material

Method of producing glass fibers with a discrete length having nonliving immobilized biochemically active material, comprising:

• a. forming sized glass fibers having a filament diameter from about 3 to about 150 microns and having a composition comprising greater than 35 up to about 60 weight percent B.sub.2 O.sub.3, about 1 to about 10 weight percent alkali metal oxides, about 30 to about 65 weight percent SiO.sub.2, up to about 5 weight percent ZrO.sub.2, and up to about 4 weight percent Al.sub.2 O.sub.3,
• b. gathering the sized fibers into one or more strands,
• c. collecting the one or more strands on a winder into a multilayered package,
• d. removing the one or more glass fiber strands from the multilayered cylindrical package,
• e. heat treating the glass fibers at a temperature in the range of about 400.degree. to about 600.degree. C. for a period of time of about 10 minutes to about 64 hours to phase separate glass into a boron-rich phase and a silica-rich phase,
• f. water leaching the glass fibers at an elevated temperature,
• g. acid leaching the glass fibers at elevated temperatures with dilute inorganic or organic acid solutions to produce porous silica-rich fibers having a pore volume of about 0.5 to 1.5 cc/gm,
• h. contacting the porous fibers with one or more nonliving biochemically active materials to immobilize the material in the internal surface area and on the external surface area of the glass fibers,
• i. maintaining the activity of the nonliving biochemically active material on and in the glass fibers.