PROTECT
Production of antimicrobial and anti-biofilm textiles of nanostructured surface, medical devices and membranes of water treatment
PROTECT aims to develop a versatile platform of 3 pre-commercial lines for production of antimicrobial textiles for hospitals and public areas, anti-biofilm medical devices and water treatment membranes. These production lines will share as a common feature the use of high intensity ultrasound (US) in 3 different machinery designs:
- Continuous roll-to-roll (R2R) US coating;
- Continuous R2R spray coating with US nozzles;
- Batch mode (non-continuous) US coating.
Website: Protect
Main goals
- Establishment of three pre-commercial nanoparticle [NPs] coating lines applied to solid substrates;
- Advanced low-cost, sustainable and safe coating processes and products;
- Novel highly efficient antimicrobial and anti-biofilm NPs – inorganic, organic, biological and hybrid;
- In situ monitoring and control of NPs coating processes and products;
- Shelf-life monitoring of the antimicrobial and anti-biofilm performance of the products based on specific indicators;
- Implementation of safety by design approaches to control potential risks during NPs coating and product use;
- New functional products with improved performance: antimicrobial textiles, antimicrobial/anti-biofilm water treatment membranes and biocompatible antimicrobial/anti-biofilm medical devices.
Project Number: 720851
Project Duration: January 2017 to June 2021
Eligible Cost: 9.441.862,50 €
Financial support from the European Union: 7.478.987,75 €
Intervention Region: Europe
Results
The partners are progressing in the scale-up of the three processes developed in Protect, previously mentioned. Partner KLO carried out experiments on the existing R2R pilot to define and optimize the parameters required for a homogenous coating that will be further used in the new up-scaled machine. Partner CENTI optimized the spray R2R coating of cotton fabrics with photocatalytic and antimicrobial silica/titanium dioxide nanocomposites, following specific design-of-experiments trials. Partners UPC and BIU optimized the batch coating processes for medical devices using metal oxide nanoparticles, combination of metaloxides and enzymes, or functional biomolecules.