Development of antimicrobial coatings with transparent, universal, and UV-crosslinkable polymers

固体表面的污染是传染性空气传播、食源性和医院传播疾病的主要感染和传播途径。目前，在医用口罩/呼吸器、医疗设备和用品、触摸屏、食品/药品生产设施的许多污染表面，广泛使用醇基消毒剂、紫外线辐射和消毒剂方法来防止有害污染物。虽然可以有效地去除表面的生物污染物，但不可能防止与受污染的手反复直接接触而对表面造成不必要的污染。此外，细菌/病毒可以在任何地方存活数小时至数天，这引起了交叉感染和接触传播的内在担忧。因此，开发一种简单而有效的金属/塑料/玻璃污染表面消毒方法已被认为是预防传染病通过接触污染设备传播的关键干预技术。在这项研究中，我们建议开发一种首创的自消毒抗菌聚合物涂层，这种涂层可以喷涂在任何类型的基材上，并且可以在不使用任何有害化学物质的情况下显示抗菌性能。我们的方法具有显著的优势，因为它消除了对使用的生物/化学制剂的安全性和数量、细菌耐药性的发展和抗菌功效等监管限制的担忧。此外，我们的技术可以很容易地转化为金属、塑料和玻璃等任何形式的表面。我们相信，这项技术将为工业快速消毒需求做出重大贡献，也为阿尔伯塔省和加拿大的一般感染控制战略做出贡献。

Contamination of solid surfaces represents a major route of infection and transmission of infectious air-borne, food-borne, and hospital-borne diseases. Currently, alcohol-based sanitizer, UV radiation, and disinfectant methods are widely used in many contaminated surfaces of medical masks/respirators, medical equipment and supplies, touchscreens, and food/pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities against harmful contaminants. While effective in deactivating biological contaminants on the surface, it is impossible to prevent unwanted contamination of the surface from the repeated direct contacts with the contaminated hands. Furthermore, the bacteria/virus can survive anywhere from a few hours to several days, raising an intrinsic concern of cross-infection and contact transmission. Therefore, development of a simple, but efficient antiseptic method for contaminated metal/plastic/glass surfaces has been considered as a key intervention technology in preventing spread of infectious diseases by contact with contaminated devices. In this research, we propose the development of a first-of-its-kind, self-sanitizing antimicrobial polymer coating that can be spray-coated on any type of substrate and is programmed to exhibit antimicrobial properties without the use of any harmful chemicals. Our approach has significant advantages as it eliminates concerns with regulatory restrictions regarding the safety and amount of biological/chemical agents used, development of bacterial resistance, and antimicrobial efficacy. Moreover, our technology can be easily translated to any type of surfaces in the form of metals, plastics, and glasses. We believe that this technology will make a significant contribution to rapid disinfection demand of industry, also to the general infection control strategy in Alberta and Canada.