The present invention is directed to a thermal vaporization process for coating of polyolefin fibres with a metal, wherein said process comprises the following steps: - inserting a polyolefin fibre or a sample of polyolefin fibres into a metallisation chamber comprising a heating means located next to a piece of metal, - applying a high vacuum in said chamber - applying heat by said heating means to said piece of metal whereby the metal evaporates and is deposited onto the colder surface of said polyolefin fibre or sample of polyolefin fibres - removing the coated fibre or sample of fibres from said metallisation chamber. Similarly, the present invention is also directed to said process applied on wovens or nonwovens. The present invention is further directed to polyolefin fibres coated with a metal according to the inventive process, to wovens and nonwovens coated by the inventive process and to polyolefin fibres, wovens and nonwovens having a surface coating of metal, wherein said surface coating has a thickness of between 0.1 to 100 nm.
