[nanoPost] Anti-microbial encapsulation

The company is a drug delivery company that is involved in micro-research that can be translated into applications to prevent microbial colonization in manufacturing equipment, especially in the area of incorporating anti-microbial compounds into plastics.

The company has knowledge of both proprietary and non-proprietary encapsulation techniques that involve the encapsulation of a variety of molecules into polymers:

1) Working with a partner they have encapsulated a range (8 compounds) of anti-microbials into poly(ethylene) (PE) using both supercritical (high pressure) carbon dioxide processing and convention processing techniques to produce shaped structures containing the anti-microbials.  Experiments were carried out at various loadings of the compounds (up to 50% (w/w)) and microbiological analysis showed that microbial growth was not prevented on PE containing anti-microbial compared to PE without.

2) Collaborators at a university have experience of studying the effects and developing (medical) products e.g. catheters that incorporate silver particles as an anti-microbial agent.  The company has experience in incorporating these particles into plastics using their processing techniques. These encapsulation techniques can be transferred to a range of plastics including PVDF and PVC (of which they have experience).