title: Making the hospital a safer place by sonochemical coating of all its textiles with antibacterial nanoparticles.
abstract: The ability to scale-up the sonochemical coating of medical textiles with antibacterial nanoparticles is demonstrated in the current paper. A roll-to-roll pilot installation to coat textiles was built taking into consideration the requirements of the sonochemical process. A long-run experiment was conducted in which 2500 m of fabric were coated with antibacterial ZnO nanoparticles (NPs). The metal oxide NPs were deposited from an ethanol:water solution. In this continuous process a uniform concentration of coated NPs over the length/width of the fabric was achieved. The antibacterial efficiency of the sonochemically-coated textiles was validated in a hospital environment by a reduction in the occurrence of nosocomial infections. NP-coated bed sheets, patient gowns, pillow cover, and bed covers were used by 21 patients. For comparison 16 patients used regular textiles. The clinical data indicated the reduced occurrence of hospital-acquired infections when using the metal oxide NP-coated textiles. In order to reduce the cost of the coating process and considering safety issues during manufacturing, the solvent (ethanol:water) (9:1 v:v) used for the long-run experiment, was replaced by water. Although lesser amounts of ZnO NPs were deposited on the fabric in the water-based process the antibacterial activity of the textiles was preserved due to the smaller size of the particles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Kanbar Laboratory for Nanomaterials, Bar-Ilan University Center for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Ramat-Gan, Israel. Electronic address: Ilana.Perelshtein@biu.ac.il.
authors.forename: Ilana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Perelshtein
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Kanbar Laboratory for Nanomaterials, Bar-Ilan University Center for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Ramat-Gan, Israel. Electronic address: ecoli2310@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Anat
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lipovsky
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Kanbar Laboratory for Nanomaterials, Bar-Ilan University Center for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Ramat-Gan, Israel. Electronic address: perkasn@mail.biu.ac.il.
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Perkas
authors.affiliation: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Edifici Gaia, Pg. Ernest Lluch/Rambla Sant Nebridi s/n, 08222 Terrassa, Spain. Electronic address: tzanko.tzanov@upc.edu.
authors.forename: Tzanko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tzanov
authors.affiliation: Burn and Plastic Surgery Clinic, MHATEM, N.I. Pirogov, Sofia, Bulgaria. Electronic address: maya_arguirova@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Аrguirova
authors.affiliation: Clinical Microbiological Laboratory, MHATEM, N.I. Pirogov, Sofia, Bulgaria. Electronic address: mlesseva@yahoo.co.uk.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Leseva
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Kanbar Laboratory for Nanomaterials, Bar-Ilan University Center for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Ramat-Gan, Israel; The Department of Materials Science & Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan. Electronic address: gedanken@mail.biu.ac.il.
authors.forename: Aharon
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gedanken
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D032561:Cotton Fiber; D006761:Hospitals; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D012449:Safety; D013784:Textiles / Q000382:microbiology*; D000069453:Ultrasonic Waves; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry; D015034:Zinc Oxide / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D014867:Water; D015034:Zinc Oxide
keywords: Antibacterial textiles; Coating ZnO; CuO; Scale-up; Sonochemistry