I-Corps: Antimicrobial Microgels for Air Purification

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是为空气和水净化提供新的具有成本效益和高效的聚合物，以尽量减少细菌和其他病原体引起的感染风险。该技术有潜力改进或取代传统的空气净化方法，在现有的供暖、通风和空调系统中，无需修改现有设备。虽然医院严重依赖高效微粒空气过滤器来满足其对无细菌空气的需求，但所需的空气处理器消耗大量能源，价格昂贵，而且对某些设施来说往往成本过高。这里开发的平台技术有可能解决这些缺点，并且还适应广泛的其他潜在应用，例如制造保护性织物和油漆，作为化妆品和绷带的一部分，或作为医疗设备和植入物的涂层，而不需要为最终用户提供专门的设备。该平台有助于集成到现有的制造流程中，并以最小的前期投资进入各种细分市场。这个I-Corps项目进一步开发了一个抗菌微凝胶平台，最初的应用集中在空气净化上。交联聚丙烯酸酯含有固定化过渡金属配合物。该材料是在室温或更低温度下用紫外光引发的微乳液自由基聚合合成的。微型乳液是通过在适当的疏水剂和离子表面活性剂的存在下对水溶液中的单体混合物进行超剪切而得到的。由此产生的悬浮液显示出对革兰氏阳性和阴性细菌的高抗菌活性，这是材料特性协同作用的结果。材料的延长保质期、稳定性和活性已被证明，聚合物悬浮液在培养皿试验中的活性已被记录，并且材料活性的概念验证数据已被获得。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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 new cost-effective and efficient polymers for air and water purification to minimize the risk of infections caused by bacteria and other pathogens. The technology has the potential to improve or replace traditional methods for air purification in established heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems without modifications of existing equipment. While hospitals heavily rely on high-efficiency particulate air filters to fulfill their need for bacteria-free air, the required air handlers consume a significant energy, are expensive, and often cost-prohibitive for some facilities. The platform technology developed here potentially addresses these drawbacks and also accommodates a wide range of other potential applications, such as manufacturing of protective fabrics, and paints, as part of cosmetics and bandages, or as coatings of medical devices and implants without the need for specialized equipment for the end-user. The platform facilitates the integration into existing manufacturing processes and gives access to various market segments at minimal upfront investment.This I-Corps project further develops a platform for antimicrobial microgels with initial applications centering on air purification. The cross-linked polyacrylates contain immobilized transition metal complexes. The material is synthesized using UV-light initiated radical polymerization of miniemulsions at ambient temperature or below. The miniemulsions are obtained by ultra-sheering of monomer mixtures in aqueous solutions in presence of appropriate hydrophobes and ionic surfactants. The resulting suspensions show high antimicrobial activity towards Gram-positive and -negative bacteria that result from a synergy of material properties. Extended shelf-life stability and activity of the material have been demonstrated, the activity of the polymer suspensions in Petri-dish assays have been documented, and proof-of-concept data for material activity when mounted on paper have been obtained.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.