qualitas1998.net News Discovered in collaboration with Israeli scholars for the M.Sci of Keren Trabelsi at Ariel University

5-Dec-2019 -  A joint Israeli-Italian team comprising Keren Trabelsi and Yael Albo based at Ariel University and Rosaria Ciriminna and Mario Pagliaro at Italy's Research Council reports today in a preprint entitled “SilverSil: A New Class of Antibacterial Materials of Broad Scope” the discovery of a new low cost and highly effective class of antibacterial materials of broad scope.

Called SilverSil by the joint team, the new material is able to quickly kill both meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus as well as Escherichia coli colonies.

Antibacterial activity is due to drug-resistant nanoparticulate silver, with ultralow leaching of silver nanoparticles from the sol-gel coating.

The material has been discovered during the Master of Science experimental work of Keren Trabelsi who carried out her work at the the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology under the joint mentoring of Dr Yael Albo at Ariel University and Mario Pagliaro at Italy's CNR.

«Hybrid ORMOSIL coatings are so versatile and easily applied to virtually any surface -- Dr Albo and Dr Ciriminna said in a joint comment -- that these coatings will soon find practical utilization to functionalize the surface of objects needing prolonged antibacterial protection».

«The development of new silver-based antibacterials -- added Trabelsi and Pagliaro -- showing the exceptionally broad scope and drug-resistant antibacterial activity of nanosized silver, but avoiding the unwanted health and environmental collateral effects of silver nanoparticles is truly important and highly desirable».

This study was dedicated by the joint team to the memory of José Fernando Mazariegos Anleu (1938-2018), inventor of the Ecofilter drinking water filter.

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