Project Partners

Certech is a recognised centre for research and development in applied chemistry, active in the field of environment, polymer materials and processes. Certech has developed expertise in the deposition of layer by layer via spray technique, and this in regard of industrialisation of the coating. Certech also has expertise on the formulation and development of sol-gel solutions for application on various materials. Characterisation techniques of coatings such as accelerated aging, by means of exposure to UV-visible light, are available and will be used during this project.

Ceti is a research centre and technology platform with pilot scale equipment. The main mission of CETI is to promote innovation and to transfer to French and European companies. These activities range from research and development applied to products and processes to prototyping and demonstrators. CETI has expertise and skills related to melt extrusion to produce innovative mono- or multifilament yarn (mono-, bi- or tricomponent) and testing of new thermoplastic polymers, whether or not functionalised. These skills and equipment will be used in this project to test the developed compounds on pilot scale. The meltspinning pilot line will also offer the possibility to test these compounds in innovative configurations of bicomponent filaments in which polymers can be combined with additional properties.

Ensait is a French institute with textile expertise. Among other things research is focused on textile functionalisation using biological or natural bioactive molecules (dye peptide, biopolymers, enzymes) that have a low impact on the environment compared to molecules or nanoparticles commonly used for the functionalisation of textiles. This work is focused on the examining techniques for immobilising these molecules, with or without surface activation of textile by ecological technologies such as atmospheric plasma. These methods allow material to attach or immobilise (temporarily or permanently), either inside the fibres, either on their surface in order to produce textiles with antimicrobial properties. Ensait also has knowledge in the development of superhydrophobic surfaces and/or antimicrobial surfaces by growing ZnO nanorods. Another expertise is the incorporation of ZnO in fibers by extrusion and meltspinning. These functional fibres have the advantage that they have a good wash fastness.

Partner UCL is member of the research centre "Bio & Soft Matter" (BSMA) of the Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences. It has been active since 1995 in the modification of surfaces by waterbased processes (polyelectrolyte multilayers), and has a strong expertise in the field of nanostructuring of surfaces and hybrid and organic thin films.

UCL has developed a specific experimental expertise and developed predictive models for superhydrophobicity. Moreover, UCL is specialised in the characterisation of functional surfaces and thin films with different methods (ellipsometry, electron microscopy and AFM, X-ray scattering in reflection) and surface analysis techniques such as contact angle and XPS.

The contribution of UCL to Duratex is knowledge of the physical chemistry of surfaces and polyelectrolyte layers, the use of the latter for making superhydrophobic surfaces, knowledge of models of superhydrophobicity (and by extension superoleophobicity), and techniques for surface characterization.

Centexbel, the Belgian scientific and technical centre for the textile and plastic converting industry, increases the competitiveness of the Belgian textile & plastic converting companies by encourage and support innovation. Our activities are applied research and development, dissemination, standardisation, testing and certification.

Within the research group "Textile Functionalisation & Surface Modification" functionalising textiles is one of the main priorities, including antimicrobial and hydrophobic/oleophobic properties. Therefore Centexbel has the necessary application methods (foulard, spray coating, ..). The research focuses largely on the search for alternatives to products under pressure (perfluoro chemistry through Reach, antimicrobial products through the new European regulation). Centexbel has test laboratories, which makes it possible to fully characterise the functionalised materials in this project, in particular, antimicrobial behaviour and hydrophobicity.