Antimicrobial coatings development for polymeric materials

该项目旨在帮助一家公司开发可用于塑料表面的抗菌涂料。这些涂层的目的是通过杀灭接触后留在表面的细菌来减少疾病在医院和其他类似环境中的传播。这些医疗保健获得性感染是患者并发症和医疗保健系统成本的重要来源，已表明抗菌材料可以在减少此类感染方面发挥重要作用。目前的涂层基于铜合金，可以很容易地应用于金属表面，但不能很好地附着在塑料上。由于医疗保健环境中的许多物品都是塑料的，因此非常需要使涂层适应这种材料。在这个项目中，我们将研究几种不同的方法来在塑料表面涂覆铜合金，或者将抗菌合金加入塑料的表层。将对所得材料的抗菌性能以及物理性能进行表征，以确保材料能够继续用于预期目的。我们还将探索抗菌作用的性质，以确定是否可以改进，并确定是否存在可能随着时间的推移而对材料的影响产生抵抗力的细菌。到项目结束时，至少七名研究人员将接受材料和微生物学技术和理论方面的高级培训。该公司将更好地了解抗菌作用的性质以及如何控制它，他们将有几种不同的选择，将他们的抗菌涂层材料应用于塑料的新产品开发。

This project seeks to assist a company with the development of antimicrobial coatings that can be used on plastic surfaces. The purpose of these coatings is to reduce the transmission of disease in hospitals and similar other settings, by killing bacteria that are left on the surface after being touched. These "healthcare acquired infections" are a significant source of complications in patients and cost to the health care system, and it has been shown that antimicrobial materials can play a major role in reducing such infections.The current coatings, which are based on a copper alloy, can be readily applied to metal surfaces but do not adhere well to plastics. Since many items in a healthcare environment are plastic, there is a great need to adapt the coatings to such materials. In this project, we will investigate several different routes to coating plastics with the copper alloy, or incorporating the antimicrobial alloy into the surface layers of the plastic. The antimicrobial properties of the resulting materials will be characterized, as well as the physical properties to ensure that the materials can continue to be used for the intended purpose. We will also explore the nature of the antimicrobial action, to determine if it can be improved and to identify if there are bacteria that may be resistant to the material's effects over time.By the end of the project, at least seven research personnel will received advanced training in materials and microbiological techniques and theory. The company will have a better understanding of the nature of the antimicrobial action and how to control it, and they will have several different alternatives for applying their antimicrobial coating material to new product development with plastics.