I-Corps: Antimicrobial Microgels for Air Purification

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是为空气和水净化提供新的具有成本效益和效率的聚合物，将细菌和其他病原体引起的感染风险降至最低。该技术有可能改进或取代现有供暖、通风和空调系统中空气净化的传统方法，而无需修改现有设备。虽然医院严重依赖高效的颗粒空气过滤器来满足他们对无菌空气的需求，但所需的空气处理器消耗大量能源，价格昂贵，而且对于一些设施来说，往往成本高昂。这里开发的平台技术潜在地解决了这些缺点，并适应了广泛的其他潜在应用，例如制造防护布和涂料，作为化妆品和绷带的一部分，或者作为医疗器械和植入物的涂层，而不需要为最终用户提供专门的设备。该平台便于集成到现有的制造工艺中，并以最小的前期投资进入不同的细分市场。i-Corps项目进一步开发了以空气净化为中心的抗菌微凝胶的初步应用平台。交联型聚丙烯酸酯含有固定化的过渡金属络合物。该材料是由紫外光引发的微乳液在室温或更低的温度下进行自由基聚合而成的。微乳液是通过在适当的疏水剂和离子表面活性剂存在的情况下，在水溶液中对单体混合物进行超剪切而获得的。所得悬浮液对革兰氏阳性和阴性细菌显示出较高的抗菌活性，这是材料特性协同作用的结果。材料的保质期延长稳定性和活性已得到证明，聚合物悬浮液在培养皿分析中的活性已被记录在案，并已获得材料活动的概念验证数据。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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.