Nanostructured antimicrobial coatings containing chitosan produced by self-assembly technique (layer-by-layer) for textile substrates

Abstract

The research on bioactive materials, especially coatings, enables the production of resistant, nontoxic, biodegradable, and suitable antimicrobial surfaces for contact with food or humans. This project will combine the effect of different types of chitosan in the manufacture of nanostructured films for antimicrobial coatings on textile substrates and glass slides. The optimization of the properties of the coatings from changes in the structure of chitosan will be emphasized, for example, with controlled variation of the average degree of acetylation (DA), pattern of acetylation (PA), and average degree of polymerization (DP), using different deposition techniques based on self-assembly methods (layer-by-layer, LbL) : dip and spray coating. To reach the desired antimicrobial activity, this optimization process include extensive characterization of chitosans and coatings, with a variety of experimental techniques, especially surface analysis. The results of this characterization will be correlated with antimicrobial activity inferred from specific tests with microorganisms of great importance to biomedical and textile applications. To achieve large scale and enable the commercial application of the coatings, the deposition of chitosan with the spray LbL technique will be investigated. In the midst of technological innovation, we expect to incorporate frontier research in which interactions at the molecular level and properties of surfaces are studied, generating scientific contributions of high impact. (AU)