Clean surface maintenance still requires a continuous use of large quantities of detergents, disinfectants and antibiotics, but promising alternatives involve novel micron and nano-sized materials with more general mechanisms of action, which interfere with the basic cell supramolecular organization and processes. By this contribution, a strategy for creating an antimicrobially-protected material surface using bio- and nano-technology will be presented. In that respect, titanate nanotubes (TiNTs) generating short-lived radicals in the process of photocatalisys that affect the bacterial membrane or act directly on the bacterial respiratory chain, and thus prevent bacterial growth, was used. The long-term and stable antimicrobial activity of polymeric-material (PES) chemically-inert surfaces was solved by the development of innovative and environmentally friendly techniques as enzyme-based and/or plasma-based pre-treatment methods, following by specific TiNTs deposition. On the other hand, TiNTs were surface pre-modified using pre-defined phenolic acids, denoting new reactive groups, being used for reaction with pre-modified PES surface in the second step; highly resolution capillary electrophoresis (CE) was introduced as innovative technique for characterization of surface chemistry and its stability, as well as aggregation of TiNTs in that respect. The photocatalytic behavior and stability of functionalized TiNTs as well as TiNT-nanostructured PES surfaces, before and after being excited with irradiation of UV light in aqueous environment, were also defined through radicals detected using spin-trapping EPR.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 17272854Biotechnological processes are ecologically and economically friendly alternative to chemical treatments, and enzymes as biocatalysts work only on a specific substrate by a site-specific chemistry. Laccases are oxidoreductases exhibiting relatively low substrate specificity, thus can oxidize compounds such as diphenols, aryl diamines, and aminophenols. They catalyze four 1e- oxidation of a reducing substrate with concomitant two 2e- reduction of dioxygen to water. The concept of enzymatic modification of wood lignin surface with functional phenolics is already well defined in the literature, however the concept of modification of lignocellulosic fibres remains incomplete mainly because the structure of lignocellulosic fibres is very heterogeneous and the amount of incorporated lignin in the complex fibre structure is low and irregular. Thus, by this contribution it will be presented the research aiming to define surface functionalization of lignocellulosic fibres with functional phenolics through in-fibers integrated lignin.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 17140246