Bioinspired Antibacterial Surfaces

Background

With increased globalisation and an ageing population, the concern about transmission of disease between countries and within communities has increased. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, people have become especially aware of the part surfaces play in the transmission of infection agents. Demand is therefore growing for antibacterial surfaces and the global antimicrobial coatings market is a multi-billion dollar industry. Growing concern regarding cleanliness in various professional healthcare industries has also led to the rapid development of this industry. The key application areas in the antimicrobial coatings market include medical and sanitary facilities, kitchen, air conditioning and ventilation systems, food processing and packaging, antimicrobial textiles, construction and mould remediation. One market that is of interest is the personal care wipes sector. Currently, most antibacterial wipes utilise non-biodegradable polypropylene non-wovens, and their replacement with biodegradable systems is highly sought in relation to sustainability.

Durham University has an invention which is a biodegradable system with a natural product based antibacterial coating that can fulfil this growing demand.

Technology Overview

Scientists at Durham University have invented a novel system based on natural products that confers highly effective antibacterial properties to a variety of surfaces. The system is biodegradable, eco-friendly, and sustainable. It is simple to administer to a surface, making processing quick and low cost. It can also be applied to a wide variety of surface types, including solid, liquid and porous surfaces (including cotton cloth, PTFE and other polymers, glass, wood, ceramics, paper and textiles).

Formulations of the coating can be optimised for a variety of applications and property portfolios, including scratch resistance, durability, lubrication, liquid repellency and surface type.

Further Details

• J Mater Chem B. 2021 Mar 28;9(12):2918-2930
• ACS Appl. Nano Mater. 2021, 4, 11, 12619–12628

Stage of development

Successful dip coating of a variety of surfaces has been shown to create antibacterial surfaces. The activity has been demonstrated on a number of surfaces (including PTFE membrane, PET film, cotton cloth, PP non-woven cloth). A strong bacterial loss (Log10 reduction) as high as 9 has been shown for these coatings against E. coli (gram-negative) and Staph. aureus (gram-positive) bacteria. Antibacterial performance of PP cloth impregnated with the coating has been shown to exhibit long-lasting recyclable antibacterial activity.

Benefits

• Eco-friendly compounds and sustainable
• High anti-bacterial efficacy (Log10 reduction = 9) against E. coli and Staph. aureus
• Single-step preparation (dip-coating)
• Durable performance over many recycle tests
• Easily applied to a variety of non-porous and porous surfaces (solid; non-woven; knitted cotton cloth; PTFE)
• Low production cost

Applications

• Food packaging
• Biodegradable antibacterial wipes
• Specialist textiles
• Medical surfaces and equipment
• Kitchen equipment
• Footwear

Opportunity

Durham University is seeking expressions of interest from suitably positioned industry partners to take forward the commercial development of this technology via partnership and licensing.