Biointeraktiva fibrer
| Diarienummer | |
| Koordinator | Kungliga tekniska högskolan - Institutionen för fiber- och polymerteknologi |
| Bidrag från Vinnova | 900 000 kronor |
| Projektets löptid | december 2010 - december 2011 |
| Status | Avslutat |
Syfte och mål
The project has focused on a novel process for imparting products with contact-active antibacterial functionality, primarily for products in the hygiene sector, but the technique can be applied to other products. Where the pre-project aimed at developing an antibacterial demonstrator for a hygiene product, this part of the project has focused on establishing the antibacterial mechanisms. More experiment is however needed, especially to study the bacteria-fibre interaction, especially to investigate the antibacterial mechanisms of PVAm in solution versus attached to surfaces
Resultat och förväntade effekter
The polymer was immobilized in multilayers on model surfaces, e.g. glass or silica, and on fibres. As fibres autofluoresces and are of a porous nature, a series of model experiments were necessary. The PVAm multilayers increased the number of initially adhered bacteria with approximately 10 times. However, despite the higher number of adhering bacteria, the treated surfaces were able to inhibit growth and subsequent development of biofilm for at least 24 hours. The antibacterial effect seems to originate from electrostatic interactions.
Upplägg och genomförande
In the project, the competences from the different areas have been represented by the project partners. KTH contributes with fibre and surface chemistry competence as well as microbiology, KI contributes with expert knowledge in the microbiology field, SCA has expert knowledge of fibre applications and the related microbiology and BASF are experts on polymers. VINNOVA has supported the project within the national research agenda (NRA).