Project Anfibio - Manunet ERA-Net

Manunet ERA-Net Project

Project Anfibio

ANtibacterial and electromagnetic interference shielding FInishing for BIOmedical and technical textiles

Summary
In the last years, the market of antibacterial textiles is one of the fastest growing sectors of the textile market reaching a growth more than 15% per year in Western Europe. Commercial products use broad-spectrum biocides such as silver, quaternary ammonium compounds and triclosan as the active agents. Some treatments are applied at the finishing stage while in other cases the biocide can be incorporated into synthetic fibres during extrusion. Anfibio project is aimed to produce EMI shielding and antibacterial textiles will be produced by non commercial finishings which involve synthetic bio-active polymers and natural oligo-/poly-cations based on proteins or oligo-peptides as novel antibacterial finishing.

Market impact
Fast-growing markets (such antibacterial textile) are searching for novel products with high levels of innovation. The proposed antibacterial finishing would be profitable for the business to develop new alternatives for antibacterial applications (not only based on silver or triclosan) in order to response to new market needs and pressing regulation demands.

Potential benefits
The proposed antibacterial finishing processes are highly innovative, in particular for the exploitation of a new, natural material as source, and the use of environmentally friendly technologies. Moreover, the proposed novel finishings are directly linked to the fibres surface and should not diffuse on the ambient. Light and comfortable conductive garments for EMI shielding (without or with low content of metals) should give a higher standard of living for the patient with pacemaker. The rewards in terms of environmental safety and technological advances are evident taking into account the use of energy-saving processes.

	Partners Yanga s.r.l. (Industrial coordinator) Lorpen (Industrial partner) CNR-ISMAC Biella, Institute for Macromolecular Studies (R&D partner) AIN, Asociación de la Industria Navarra (R&D partner) Ingeo Consulting (Consulting)
	Project scheduling Project started on 1st January 2011 (D5.1) WP1 & 2: Activities started in January 2011 Kick-off meeting in Biella for 22nd February 2011 Project's web-page on-line on 15th March 2011 (D5.2) Second meeting took place in Pamplona in November 2011 Progress report (D5.3) delivered and validated in January 2012 WP3: Activities started in January 2012
	Reminders WP1: Delivery of report (D1) in June 2012 Next meeting is planned for 20th June 2012 in Biella


	Dissemination C. Vineis, A. Varesano, A. Aluigi, C. Tonetti, F. Rombaldoni, G. Mazzuchetti, "Polypyrrole coating for Antimicrobial textiles", AUTEX 2011 - 11th World Textile Conference, 8-10 June 2011, Mulhouse, France A. Varesano, C. Vineis, A. Aluigi, C. Tonetti, F. Rombaldoni, G. Mazzuchetti, "Intrinsically conducting polymers as antimicrobial textile finishing", FiberMed11 - International Conference on Fibrous Products in Medical and Health Care, June 28-30 2011, Tampere, Finland
	Related scientific knowledge A. Varesano, C. Vineis, A. Aluigi, F. Rombaldoni, "Antimicrobial polymers for textile products". In: A. Méndez-Vilas (Ed.), "Science against Microbial Pathogens: Communicating Current Research and Technological Advances", Formatex, Microbiology Series Nº3, Vol. 1, Badajoz, Spain, pp. 99–110 (2011). ISBN-13: 978-84-939843-1-1. download