Development of multifunctional coatings with virucidal and antibacterial activity on hard surfaces, textiles and fabrics

2020年一种新型人类冠状病毒(SARS-CoV-2)的传播表明，世界经济、社会习惯和人类活动对病毒或抗药性感染的扩散没有做好准备。通过受污染的表面传播是导致一些微生物传播的许多重要因素之一，因为它们能够在表面上存活相对较长的时间。因此，需要能够抑制感染通过表面传播的材料。尽管表面传播并不被认为是SARS-CoV-2传播的罪魁祸首，但这种污染因素对其他类型的病毒和细菌不能掉以轻心，因此必须加以解决，以避免未来的病原体爆发。纳米材料能够在微米和纳米尺度上与病原体相互作用，是一种在进入宿主系统之前将病原体灭活的有希望的解决方案。该项目的目标是开发具有不同抗病毒和抗菌性能的微/纳米涂层，并将其嵌入到聚合物基质中。该项目尤其将(I)开发基于氢氧化钙的多孔微胶囊杀病毒剂，(Ii)开发含银纳米粒子的抗病毒和抗菌功能化氧化石墨烯，(Iii)将所开发的微/纳米材料整合到Nanophyll公司生产的纺织品中，以获得一种高度耐用的多功能涂层，该涂层能够通过多种主动协同机制来针对不同的病原体，即病原体在细胞膜上的机械损伤，金属离子的释放，以及通过释放氢氧化钙而产生碱性环境。在最后阶段，多功能涂层将被转移到从硬质表面到柔性纺织品的不同基材上，以实现广泛的应用。提出的方法将通过实验设计(DOE)来优化工艺参数。为了评估生成的涂层的有效性和耐久性，将测试其抗病毒、抗菌和加速老化性能。

The spreading of a novel human coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in 2020 demonstrated how world economies, social habits and human activities are not prepared to the diffusion of viruses or drug-resistant infections. Transmission through contaminated surfaces (fomites) is one of the many important contributors to the spread of some microorganisms as they are able to survive on surfaces for relatively long time. Hence, there is a need for materials that can inhibit the transmission of infections via surfaces. Although surface transmission has not been considered the primary culprit in the spread of SARS-CoV-2, this contamination factor cannot be treated lightly for other type of viruses and bacteria and therefore must be addressed to avoid future pathogenic outbreaks.Nanomaterials, being able to interact with pathogens on the micro and nanoscale, are a promising solution for their inactivation before entering the host system. The objective of this project is to develop micro/nanofillers having different virucidal and antibacterial properties, and to embed them in a polymer matrix.In particular, the project will (i) develop a porous microcapsule virucidal agent based on calcium hydroxide, (ii) develop virucidal and antibacterial functionalized Graphene Oxide with silver nanoparticles, (iii) incorporate the developed micro/nanomaterials in textiles produced by Nanophyll inc in order to obtain a highly durable multifunctional coatings which are able to target different pathogenic microorganisms via multiple active synergistic mechanisms, i.e. mechanical damage of the pathogen on the cell membrane, release of metal ions and production of an alkaline environment through release of calcium hydroxide. In the final stage, multifunctional coatings will be transferred onto different substrates ranging from hard surfaces to flexible textiles to enable a wide array of applications. The proposed methodology will optimize the process parameters through Design of Experiments (DoE). To evaluate the efficacy and durability of the generated coatings, the virucidal, antibacterial and accelerated aging properties will be tested.