Countering Infection Hazard in Hospital Operating Rooms

An Italian concern specialized in the design, production, and distribution of medical surgical lamps for hospitals and operating rooms, studied disinfection methods to reduce the potential infection risk due to the bacterial pathogen proliferation in environments where spreading disease is easier, i.e., the surgical operating room.

Research done during the past years to develop innovative, ecologically compatible technologies yielded materials able to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), applying the photocatalytic process, carrying out a complete oxidation and death of the bacterial microorganisms. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a semiconductor oxide showing a marked photocatalytic activity which can be activated with the solar and artificial radiation absorption. In fact, it usually absorbs the photonic incidence radiation of a determinate wavelength (UVA region) and then participates in the photocatalytic surface reactions.

Based on these studies, ACEM (Bologna, Italy), in collaboration with the Department of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science and the Microbiology lab of the Agro-environmental Sciences and Technologies Department of the University of Bologna (Italy), has produced and patented a surface coating dubbed ABC (AntiBacterial Coating) which has been applied on ACEM surgical LED lamps as a titanium dioxide aqueous acrylic dispersion.

TiO2 is present in three different crystalline structures in nature, i.e., rutile, anatase and brookite. The crystalline tetragonal structure of anatase is the one with the highest photocatalytic activity. It has antipolluting, deodorant, self-cleaning, and antibacterial properties. The study made by ACEM consists on the synthesis of nanometric anatase crystals in aqueous dispersion, which has been called TicleaniT, creating extremely efficient antibacterial activity with the use of common fluorescent cold light lamps. This project has allowed the production a water-based acrylic paint dispersion containing TiO2 nanocrystals, which make surgical led lamps surface bactericidal against the most diffused hospital Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.

Related Links:
ACEM
University of Bologna