Safer functionalised cellulose composites for environmental and medical applications: design and manufacturing

该项目旨在开发更安全的功能化纤维素复合材料，用于环境和医疗应用，包括水净化和抗菌作用，并设计一种易于放大的制造工艺。纤维素是地球上最丰富和最可持续的天然聚合物。它被认为是最知名的可再生，环境友好和生物相容性材料之一。在过去的几十年中，金属纳米颗粒，包括银（Ag）、铜（Cu）、金（Au）、二氧化钛（TiO 2）和氧化铜（CuO），已经成功地功能化到纤维素上。然而，纳米材料应用的急剧扩展也引起了研究纳米颗粒对人体的潜在毒性作用的需求。在理想的情况下，纳米材料应该对细菌生长具有最大的抑制能力，对正常人体细胞的细胞毒性最小。该小组先前的研究证实，从天然植物中提取的化合物可以显着降低纳米复合材料的细胞毒性，而对细菌的毒性仍然保持在较高的水平。在该项目中，研究人员将设计对人体细胞安全、对细菌有毒的功能化纤维素复合材料，并开发一种连续生产工艺，以便于扩大规模。将通过用于临床纳米结构的纳米毒性试验的既定试验组合评估细胞和基因组毒性。

The project is aiming to develop safer functionalised cellulose composites for environmental and medical applications, including water purification and antibacterial action, and design an easy scale-up process for manufacture. Cellulose is the most abundant and sustainable natural polymer on the planet. It is considered as one of the most well-known renewable, environmentally friendly, and biocompatible materials. Metal nanoparticles, including silver (Ag), copper (Cu), gold (Au), titanium dioxide (TiO2) and copper oxide (CuO), have been successfully functionalised onto cellulose in the last decades. However, the dramatic expansion of the applications of nanomaterials also gives rise to the requirement to investigate the potentially toxic effects of nanoparticles towards the human body. In an ideal situation, nanomaterials should have maximum inhibitory power over bacterial growth with minimum cytotoxicity on normal human cells. Previous research in the group approved that compounds extracted from natural plants can significantly reduce the cytotoxicity of the nanocomposite while the toxicity towards bacteria still maintained at a high level. In this project, the researcher will design functionalised cellulose composites which are safe for human cells and toxic for bacteria and develop a continuous manufacture process for easy scale-up. The cellular and genome toxicity will be assessed by an established battery of tests used for nanotoxicity testing of clinical nanoconstructs.