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PES2020-Prosj.etabl.støtte H2020

Novel visible light photocatalysts nanoparticles for the prevention of disease transmission

Awarded: NOK 39,999

The basic principle of infection prevention and control is hygiene especially in hospitals and more targeted in Surgical site infections. Hygiene could be divided in personal hygiene (e.g. hand washing) and inanimate object disinfection (e.g. use of chemicals for cleaning and sanitizeing). However, hygiene practices are not enough to fight against infections. This is because, every patient comes in contact several times per day with bacteria via touching inanimate objects such as handrails, door knobs etc and thus, the hazard of infections is more than evident. In order to overcome this important social problem, the partners of this proposal intend to apply a novel multi directional approach in two production processes having as target to bring into the market healthcare products against diseases transmission. The application will target to provide metal matrix composite coatings and VLP nano based paints, in order to give photo-catalytic imposed anti-microbial and self cleaning properties to these surfaces. These new composite coatings will incorporate chemically modified TiO2 nano-particles as reinforcing mean, and will present enhanced photo-catalytic activity under visible light irradiation and thus, will lead to a decrease of the risk of getting infected by inanimate objects by a factor of >90%. The whole development is based on a series of lab scale validation experiments and development of pilot scale prototypes leading to demonstration activities. The objectives are planned to be in complete alliance with the issues raised by the topic NMP-02 and will be implemented in a reasonable, scalable and cost effective manner, justified by integrated production methods, large scale capacity for integrating the selected nanomaterials into the proposed production lines, design of appropriate nanosafety issues, cost effective accurate characterizations and variability product evaluation through LCA approach and at the same time, envisage the viability of the product.

Funding scheme:

PES2020-Prosj.etabl.støtte H2020