NSF I-Corps: Silver materials for antimicrobial coatings

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是为制造商提供一种新的方法来创造低门槛的广谱抗菌织物处理。这项技术承诺通过减少溶剂使用、浪费和涂层损失，以较低的总体经济和环境成本提供抗菌涂料。抗菌处理已经被用于医学，如绷带、导管和其他医疗用品的抗感染处理，以及服装和纺织品的抗气味处理。服装制造商的准入门槛较低，预计将使该技术得到更广泛的采用，这反过来将减少过度洗涤造成的材料和能源浪费，并为消费者节省资金。该技术可适用于多种纤维类型，无需专门设备即可应用，便于集成到现有制造流程中，并使制造商能够以最少的前期投资进入高端细分市场。这个i-Corps项目将有助于提高抗菌处理的市场渗透率，这反过来将以更低的环境和经济成本为消费者提供卓越的服装性能。这项技术使用了NSF先前资助的研究开发的一种新形式的可溶银金属，以及一种用生物活性银覆盖各种不同类型纤维的创新方法，使抗菌涂层能够在制造过程的任何阶段应用。概念验证已经通过基本原型进行了演示，但针对特定市场和应用的技术开发需要更好地了解客户需求。这个i-Corps团队项目旨在通过广泛的客户访谈发现这些客户需求，以便为满足所确定的每个特定市场特定需求的产品的开发和工程提供信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to provide a new means of creating broad-spectrum antimicrobial fabric treatments with a low barrier to entry for manufacturers. This technology promises to deliver antimicrobial coatings at lower overall economic and environmental costs, by reducing solvent usage, waste, and coating loss. Antimicrobial treatments are already used in medicine, as anti-infective treatments of bandages, catheters, and other medical items, and in garments and textiles, as anti-odor treatments. The lower barrier to entry for garment manufacturers is expected to enable more widespread adoption of the technology, which in turn will reduce material and energy waste from excessive laundering and save consumers money. The technology can be adapted to a wide range of fiber types and can be applied without specialized equipment, facilitating the integration into existing manufacturing processes and giving manufacturers access to premium market segments with minimal upfront investment. This I-Corps project will help improve the market penetration of antimicrobial treatments, which in turn will provide consumers with superior garment performance at reduced environmental and economic costs. The technology uses a new form of soluble silver metal, developed by prior NSF funded research, and an innovative method to coat a variety of different fiber types with bioactive silver, which enables the antimicrobial coatings to be applied at any stage in the manufacturing process. Proof of concept has been demonstrated with basic prototyping, but development of the technology for specific markets and applications demands a better understanding of customer needs. This I-Corps team project is aimed at discovering those customer needs, through extensive customer interviews, in order to inform the development and engineering of products that meet each particular market specific need that is identified.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.