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World's first organic compounds for

self-cleaning surfaces, including textiles

Flexible supercapacitors on

The World's first breakthrough has come from microbial biofilms are a problem.
Unilever and Innova's partnership, introducing an
organic compound called Lactam, which can block Professor Steve Howell, Founder of Innova Partner-
or prevent bacteria and mold on everyday surfaces. ships, said: "This is such an exciting and innovative space. a polyester-cotton fabric
The patented technology, which Unilever has been We're currently working with license partners for banknotes
researching for over ten years, is developed from and dental applications, but there are so many more uses
natural chemicals in seaweed biology and can be in which this technology could benefit."
used in a range of situations, from preventing fungal In conductive textiles, recently, remarkable attention has been devoted to developing textile supercapacitor for
growth in washing machines and dishwashers to Dr. Neil Parry, R&D Programme Director - Biotechnol- energy storage and wearable electronics applications. Supercapacitor textiles offer lightweight, flexibility,
self-cleaning banknotes. ogy and Biosourcing, Unilever, explained: "This stretchability, and ease of integration with electronic textiles.
technology replicates the natural cleaning process of
Technology is based on seaweed, the ocean's seaweed; keeping surfaces clean and repelling The researchers have developed flexible supercapacitors on a PC fabric. Flexible and fully encapsulated
defense solution. The biotechnology company, unwanted invaders from its immediate environment. supercapacitor fabricated on top of polyester-cotton, which demonstrated area capacitance of 0.54 mF·cm−2
Penrhos Bio, will scale anti-microbial solutions that This biology works in extreme conditions. It will keep and a normalized ESR of 1.2 kΩ.cm−2. The proposed devices were electrochemically stable between +/−
could help tackle some of the biggest societal and working in dirty waters by blocking the communication 1.8 V and exhibited a negligible difference in CV tests between the bent and non-bent devices.
environmental challenges of the 21st century. It between bacteria from colonization and building upon
represents a significant opportunity across multiple the plant's healthy surfaces. This is what we have It demonstrates the feasibility of the materials and fabrication processes and the assembly approach which
sectors, including healthcare, textiles, and marine, successfully replicated in the lab, and now we are ready has successfully realized an encapsulated supercapacitor on top of the polyester-cotton textile. Future work
and could even be used in medical fields where to start trialing this in our Unilever cleaning products." will include optimizing the electrode's formulation and fabrication process and the electrolyte for better
electrochemical performance.

January/February 2021 January/February 2021