SBIR Phase I: Antimicrobial Nanocoatings through Grafting of PECVD Films

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在开发一种新的制造工艺，用于在金属或塑料上沉积含银离子的纳米级涂层，以抵抗微生物。抗菌纳米涂层（AMNC）是使用等离子体增强化学气相沉积（PECVD）工艺从气相沉积到各种表面上的。由于低前体挥发性和离子金属配体不稳定性，将离子银有效整合到涂层中仍然是一个困难的工程挑战。商业上可行的AMNC工艺的拟议开发将包括：1）通过PECVD沉积纳米级膜，该膜含有可浸出的银离子，用至少两种不同的基质聚合物（有机和无机）和一定范围的银含量合成。这将通过将含银的有机金属化合物沉积后接枝到PECVD等离子体聚合物上来实现。2)建立这些含银PECVD膜的抗微生物有效性作为结构和组成的函数。膜的组成、厚度和形态都可通过适当选择反应气体和沉积条件来控制。一个成功的第一阶段项目将导致纳米级抗菌涂层的展示，该涂层已在大约20种顶级细菌病原体的面板上进行了测试。目前市场上还没有商业AMNC。AMNC比手术刀的刀刃更薄，几乎不可见，与现有的厚抗菌涂料相比具有明显的优势，同时解决了医院感染（NI）等重要问题。NI是医疗保健行业面临的最严重问题之一。CDC估计，仅在美国，NI每年就导致超过10万人死亡，同时每年增加的医疗保健费用超过50亿美元。被污染的手被认为是传播NI的最大原因。将AMNC应用于医院和公立学校等设施的手接触表面（例如门把手，浴室固定装置）可能非常有益。此外，AMNC可以通过改善医疗材料（例如留置导管、中心线、假体、其他侵入性设备）的微生物和生物膜抗性来增强医疗保健。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project aims to develop a novelmanufacturing process for depositing silver ion-containing nano-scale coatings on metalsor plastics for microbial resistance. The antimicrobial nanocoating (AMNC) is depositedfrom the vapor phase using a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD)process onto a variety of surfaces. Effective integration of ionic silver into the coating remains a difficult engineering challenge due to low precursor volatility and ionic metal ligand instability. The proposed development of a commercially viable AMNC process will include: 1)Deposition of nanometer-scale films via PECVD that contain leachable silver ions, synthesized with at least two different matrix polymers (organic and inorganic) and a range of silver content. This will be accomplished via post-deposition grafting of silver containing organometallics onto PECVD plasma polymers. 2) Establishing antimicrobial effectiveness of these silver-containing PECVD films as a function of structure and composition. Film composition, thickness, and morphology are all controllable by suitable choice of reactant gases and deposition conditions. A successful Phase I project will result in the demonstration of a nanometer-scale antimicrobial coating that has been tested on a panel of approximately 20 of the top bacterial pathogens.Commercially AMNCs are not currently available on the market. Thinner than therazor edge of a scalpel and nearly invisible, AMNCs offer distinct advantages overavailable thick antimicrobial paints while addressing important problems such asnosocomial (hospital acquired) infections (NI). NIs represent one of the most severeproblems facing the health care industry. The CDC estimates that NIs cause over100,000 deaths per year in the U.S. alone, with a concomitant increased health care costof over 5 billion dollars per year. Contaminated hands are believed to be the singlegreatest cause of transmitting NIs. Applying AMNCs to hand contact surfaces (e.g. doorknobs, bathroom fixtures) in facilities such as hospitals and public schools could betremendously beneficial. Moreover, AMNCs can enhance healthcare by improvingmicrobial and biofilm resistance of medical materials (e.g. indwelling catheters, centrallines, prostheses, other invasive devices).