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死接触后留在表面上的细菌来减少医院和其他类似环境中的疾病传播。 这些“医疗获得性感染”是患者并发症和医疗保健系统成本的重要来源，并且已经表明抗菌材料可以在减少此类感染方面发挥重要作用。目前基于铜合金的涂层可以很容易地应用于金属表面，但不能很好地粘附到塑料上。 由于医疗环境中的许多物品是塑料的，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途径来用铜合金涂覆塑料，或者将抗菌合金加入塑料的表面层。 将表征所得材料的抗菌性能以及物理性能，以确保材料可继续用于预期目的。 我们还将探索抗菌作用的性质，以确定是否可以改进，并确定是否有细菌可能随着时间的推移对材料的作用产生抗性。到项目结束时，至少有7名研究人员将接受材料和微生物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，并且他们将有几种不同的替代方案将其抗菌涂层材料应用于塑料新产品开发。 ******

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. ******