OVERVIEW OF THE ACTION AND SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
The proposed project plan aims to develop ZnO and CuO nanoparticles (NPs) for coating textile, plastic and metal surfaces to prevent bacterial and viral transmission via a touch from contaminated surfaces. The goal of the project is to determine the potential for mass usage of NPs in place of standard disinfectants to prolong the antibacterial and antiviral characteristics of treated surfaces. To achieve the aims of the proposed research, specific objectives have been introduced.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES:
O1: To prepare and analyse coated ZnO and CuO NPs (WP1). The action that will take part to meet O1 is the preparation of metallic NPs of ZnO and CuO. NPs will be coated with PSS for higher stability, and uniform size distribution and to reduce the adhesion of the bacterial membrane to the coated surfaces. A detailed chemical and physical characterisation will be used to determine the concentration, surface chemistry, size distribution, and structural and morphological information for optimising the characteristics and bioactivity of prepared NPs.
O2: To adsorb NPs on textile, plastic and metal surfaces (WP2). The actions that will be used to meet O2 will be the coating of textile materials, specifically cotton, nylon and polyester for easier application. To avoid harsh chemicals on the textile from the direct reaction of NP formation, NPs will be applied after preparation and purification. Plastic and metal surfaces will be coated using a developed method of spraying ethanol, ethanol/water and NPs suspension to surfaces to obtain fast evaporation of solvent and adhesion of NPs on desired surfaces. The ethanol will be completely evaporated since it can affect Gram-positive bacteria itself.
O3: To determine antibacterial characteristics and COVID-19 protein binding capacity on coated surfaces (WP3). The actions for O3 include antibacterial tests and tests for COVID-19 protein adsorption/binding on coated surfaces. Antibacterial tests will be done to investigate the growth and adsorption inhibition of chosen bacterial strains on the treated textile, plastic and metal surfaces. Moreover, laboratory model experiments will be done to simulate COVID-19 adhesion on non-treated and treated surfaces using marked COVID-19 spike proteins.