NanoSurf · Development of New Nanotechnology Strategies for Surface Disinfection/Decontamination
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-01-01 → 2022-12-31
- EU contribution
- €178,320
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Development of New Nanotechnology Strategies for Surface Disinfection/Decontamination
It is estimated that within the next 50 years there will be 10 billion people on Earth, leading to food production and supply challenges. These challenges include the need for safe foods. The production of safe foods already poses a challenge today as illustrated by diseases such as salmonellosis, which caused 60,050 cases in the EU in 2021, a 14.3 % increase compared with the previous year. Meanwhile, the use of traditional chemical antimicrobial agents to fight these pathogens has numerous drawbacks. When traditional antimicrobial strategies reach the limits of their effectiveness, innovative combined treatments will offer solutions to combat foodborne pathogens. Such novel antimicrobial strategies will have a profound effect on the global public health. The Nanosurf project focused an innovative combination of three technologies, i.e, (i) cold atmospheric plasma (CAP), (ii) ultrasound (US) and (iii) the synthesis of nanomaterials (Nps) in one technological chain for decontamination and/or disinfection of biotic/abiotic surfaces. The proposed technology is of particular interest since it relies on water as a medium without the need for any electroconductive additives. Formal objectives of this Marie Skłodowska Curie Action (MSCA) were to (a) achieve an optimization for the nanoparticles (Nps) composition, technological parameters of CAP-US synthesis of Nps under non-equilibrium state; to achieve a combination of CAP-US synthesis of Nps in one chain for treatment of various surfaces; (b) to demonstrate the efficacy of the technological combination of the CAP process with US treatment in one technological chain for decontamination and/or disinfection of biotic/abiotic surfaces; (c) to study physicochemical, toxicological properties and risk assessment of synthesized Nps. Another goal of the MSCA Individual Fellowship is to bring up the development of the individual researcher. In this project, the objectives and goals have been addressed via three specific work packages: (1) development of an integrated plasma-ultrasound treatments; (2) synthesis and characterization of nanoparticles; (3) antimicrobial efficacy, toxicological and risk assessment of synthesized MeOx NPs.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
In the next 50 years, an estimated 10 billion people will require food but microbial spoilage cause more than 50% of all fruits and vegetables to go to waste in the EU alone. Current disinfection techniques do not seem effective to curb food wastage and at this rate, feeding the future world population will impose challenges. Thus, the overall objective of NanoSurf is to develop a procedure for the decontamination and disinfection of food products and food contact materials using a combination of (1) plasma, (2) ultrasound and (3) nanoparticles with antimicrobial properties. All three individual technologies emerge as effective in disinfecting, decontaminating and preserving food from microbial spoilage. However, based to our knowledge, the integration of plasma, ultrasound and nanoparticles into one technology has never been described for decontamination/disinfection applications. A two step-procedure is envisioned with (a) an initial decontamination with plasma and/or ultrasound technology and then (b) under these conditions generate in situ a low concentration of antimicrobial metallic nanoparticles to deter microbial growth during storage conditions. The method will make use of either pure water as solvent or a gaseous phase, thus eliminating the need of environmentally toxic media, such as, alcohol and electroconductive additives. NanoSurf is expected to have numerous advantages over traditional decontamination/disinfection technologies because the synthesis of nanomaterials Nps will be produced in-situ. The advantage of the proposed technological solution is the ease of implementation, the selection of varied technological schemes for plasma-ultrasound treatment as well as the synthesis of nanoscale metal oxide forms by non-toxic doses in various proportions for different processing times. This novel technology, as demonstrated based on the development of novel prototypes, is expected to find immediate application in the food industry and the medical field.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN · LeuvenCoordinatorBelgium
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union