Plastics technology centre Aimplas (Valencia / Spain; www.aimplas.es) is participating in an EU-funded project, called “Flexpol” (www.flexpol.eu), to develop a more eco-friendly material with antimicrobial and antifungal properties to be used in hospitals. Flexpol’s funding is from the “Horizon 2020” programme and amounts to EUR 5.18m. The Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology (IPT, Aachen / Germany; www.ipt.fraunhofer.de) is coordinating the project with Aimplas and nine other entities:

• nano-polypharmacology specialist Naturality (Terrassa / Spain; www.naturality.fr),
• the Nanobiopol research group (Alicante / Spain; web.ua.es/en/nanobiopol/nanobiopol-group-of-analysis-of-polymers-and-nanomaterials.html) at the Universidad de Alicante,
• the Biodonostia health research institute (San Sebastián / Spain; www.biodonostia.org),
• non-profit research organisation IK4-Tekniker (Eibar / Spain; www.tekniker.es),
• the nanoscience research institute ICN2 (Barcelona / Spain; www.icn2.cat),
• protective packaging manufacturer Propagroup (Rivoli / Italy; www.propagroup.com),
• Celanese-owned thermoplastics compounder SO.F.TER. (Forli / Italy; www.softergroup.com),
• the 3B’s research group (Barco / Portugal; www.3bs.uminho.pt) at the University of Minho and
• materials information technology company Ansys Granta (formerly Granta Design, Cambridge / UK; www.grantadesign.com).

The novel PP film material is designed to cover surfaces that are exposed to microbes and to prevent surface proliferation of these microorganisms by preventing them from adhering. Applications include bed rails, tray tables, telephones and alarm buttons. Essential oil encapsulation technologies will be used to obtain a product that is easy to apply and remove. It could then reduce the use of detergents and antibiotics, making nanocapsulation an eco-friendly alternative.

One goal of Flexpol is to keep the essential oil nanocapsules intact during film processing because of their low thermal resistance. Aimplas contributed by developing a method that prevents the nanocapsules from being destroyed during the compounding phase of processing. The project has shown that nanocapsules with essential oils can incorporate into PP matrices and withstand compounding and film extrusion processes.