Doctoral Themes

BioCoat: Hybrid Bio-based Coatings for Antimicrobial Applications

Supervisors

Ana Catarina Sousa, acsousa@deq.isel.ipl.pt

Alexander Kirillov, kirillov@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Ana Viana, apsemedo@fc.ul.pt

Registration Institution

Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa

Project description

Transmission of pathogens by infected high-touch surfaces and everyday items is currently a major health concern. The resistance shown by many bacterial species to conventional antibiotics brought new challenges to the development of efficient antiseptic materials. The design of novel coating materials which could combine antibacterial or antifungal properties with a long-acting lifetime and low environmental impact represents an important research direction. In particular, hybrid bio- based polymer coatings, films, and composites are getting impetus as highly promising functional materials for various antiseptic, antimicrobial and therapeutic applications.

Driven by these challenges and taking an advantage of bio-based polymers (starch, cellulose, agarose, chitosan) as non-toxic, biocompatible, low cost and tunable matrices, this doctoral project proposes to develop new sustainable coatings and derived hybrid materials for antimicrobial applications. Apart from biopolymer matrix, the hybrid coatings will incorporate bioactive metal- organic frameworks (bioMOFs) or coordination compounds for enhanced and wide spectrum antimicrobial function. The project will be developed in pursuit of the following key objectives: (1) preparation and characterization of bio-based polymer film matrices from renewable feedstocks; (2) design, synthesis, and full characterization of new antiseptic or antimicrobial compounds (bioMOFs, bioactive metal complexes and derived composites); (3) production of bioMOF-doped polymer coatings for prospective therapeutic and antiseptic applications (e.g., wound healing, burn healing, skin repair, drug delivery, antibiofilm action), and (4) evaluation of antimicrobial activity of the produced hybrid coatings, films, and composites.

Keywords

Antimicrobial materials; Bio-based polymers; Sustainable coatings; Metal-organic frameworks

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