Topic: Making Hospitals Safer by Sonochemically Coating Hospital Textiles and Medical Devices with Antibacterial Nanoparticles
超声波化学及技术应用：纳米涂层让医院更安全
Speaker: Prof. Aharon Gedanken
Date: June 26, 2019 (Wednesday)
Time: 19:00-20:20
Venue: Auditorium, GTIIT
We have developed the sonochemical approach into an excellent technique for coating nanomaterials on various substrates, imparting new properties to the latter. After successful coating nanoparticles (NPs) on various ceramics and stainless steel, we extended the coating to textiles made of polyester, cotton, and nylon, etc. In all the cases a homogeneous coating of NPs was achieved. However, the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) has rare enthusiasm towards Ag NPs. As a result, we shifted our attention to other NPs and found the coated ZnO and CuO NPs have excellent antibacterial properties. These NPs were firmly coated on the above-mentioned fabrics and showed outstanding antibacterial performances. One of our concerns was whether the coated textiles will fit to hospitals and will stand long washing preventing the leaching of the NPs. It was proven that, after 65 washing cycles at 75 0C in water in a Hospital washing machine, the coated ZnO NPs on cotton showed no any obvious leaching of NPs detected in the washing solution, and the antibacterial behavior was maintained almost unchanged. Recently, another experiment was conducted at PIGOROV Hospital in Sofia, Bulgaria, in which two groups of patients were probed for bacterial infection in two rooms: one room was equipped with antibacterial textiles (bed sheets, pajamas, pillow covers, and bed covers), and the other room with only regular textiles. The results demonstrated that a much lower infection level was observed for those patients exposed to the antibacterial textiles. Furthermore, we also coated a series of medical devices with metal oxide NPs, which showed very good biocidal properties and inhibition of biofilm formation. These medical devices include (i) urinal catheters, (ii) contact lens, (iii) cochlear electrodes, (iv) metallic implants, and (v) silicon implants. In my lecture I will talk about the results related to the case (i) and (ii). The coated catheters with the above mentioned NPs were inserted in rabbits, and the urine of the rabbits was not contaminated with any bacteria for 7 days compared with 4 days for the uncoated catheters.
In short, Sonochemistry and its relevant techniques have been well developed and have wide applications in various areas.
Prof. (Em.) Aharon Gedanken obtained his Ph. D. degree from Tel Aviv University, Israel. After his postdoctoral research at USC in Los Angeles, he got a lecturer position at Bar-Ilan University (BIU) in Oct. 1975. In 1994, he switched his research interest from Spectroscopy to Nanotechnology. His group contributes to the establishment and development of the following methods for nanomaterials synthesis: Sonochemistry, Microwave Superheating, Sonoelectrochemistry, and Reactions under Autogenic Pressure at Elevated Temperatures (RAPET). Since 2004 he has been mainly focused on the applications of nanomaterials. So far he has published 830 peer-reviewed papers in international journals with citations of ca. 40,000, and his H-Index is 104. He was/is on the editorial boards of 7 international journals. In addition, he was a partner in five EC FP7 projects, and one of them, SONO, was coordinated by him. This project was announced by the EC as a “Success Story”. He was the Israeli representative to the NMP (Nano, Materials, and Processes) committee of EC in FP7. He was awarded the prize of the Israel Vacuum Society in 2009 and the Israel Chemical Society for excellence in Research in Feb. 2013.
