ADDITIVES | ANTIMICROBIALS
Sanitized adds development capacity
Swiss antimicrobial company Sanitized has expanded its ability to develop customer-specific antimicrobial masterbatches with the addition of an 18-mm twin-screw extruder at its technical centre. “The selection of the
appropriate antimicrobial active ingredients depends on the defined protection goals, on their compatibility with the relevant processing method and the polymer type,” says Christine Niklas, Product Manager at Sanitized. “[Using the new equipment] we can do a small-scale replication of the customer’s manufacturing process,
production process and whether the antimicrobial active ingredients affect the physical and visual properties of their products.
Sanitized has installed additional lab compounding capacity
which reduces testing time and costs for the customer.” Key customer concerns include
compatibility of the additives with the
In Korea, fatalities were linked to CMIT/MIT [chloromethylisothiazolinone/methylisothiazo- linone] treatment in humidifier filters and this has caused Korean companies to specify their formulations to be isothiazolinone-free, says Kim. The Korean Consumer Chemical Products and Biocides Safety Act (K-BPR) launched in January this year and Kim says it closely mirrors the European BPR.
Kim says another biocide used in plastics—zinc pyrithione (ZPT)—is also facing potential restrictions. “With ZPT being labeled as CMR [carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic for reproduction] in Europe, that technology’s eventual ban seems likely in the EU. Already, ZPT users are asking for alternatives,” she says, adding that alternatives include Folpet and IPBC, both of which are offered by Troy. “Folpet is already approved for Product Type 9 [fibre, leather, rubber and polymerised materials preservatives] and has a long, positive regulatory outlook in the BPR,” she says. The challenge of navigating EU regulations for biocides is having a negative effect on use of antimicrobials in plastics, says Life Materials Technologies’ Tom Ellefsen. “There is still a lot of uncertainty and concern about how [BPR] applies to intermediate products and treated articles. … Additionally, now that active substances are moving from the Review Programme to the positive list, the new requirement to obtain costly country-by-country authorisations for biocide products is fragmenting the EU-wide system into an unwieldy mess.”
22 COMPOUNDING WORLD | July 2019
In addition to customer- specific tests, Sanitized is working to develop new protection technologies, such as master- batches with encapsulated antimicrobial active ingredients. Encapsulation could potentially improve the thermal stability of the antimicrobial active ingredi-
ents or prevent interaction with other ingredients in the customer’s formula- tion, Niklas explains. �
www.sanitized.com
Outlook for silver
Silver has a long history as an effective antimicrobial in a range of plastics; it can be used in high-temperature plastics and typically can be used in food-contact applications. In the US, the EPA is in the process of re-registering silver antimicrobials, and some products are being reclassified as nano-silver, says Sciessent’s Lise Moloney, who adds that Agion’s products are not part of this classification. Although the EPA will request further test data (for example, respiration studies) for some products, no problems with health effects are expected to be demonstrated. The outlook for nano-scale antimicrobials is not
assured, according to Life Materials Technologies’ Tom Ellefsen. “There is a strong sentiment against nano-particles in Europe and North America. As a consequence, antimicrobial substances that use nano-particles will likely not succeed in the marketplace. This holds not only for nano-particles of silver, but nano-particles of zinc, copper and other substances.” However, he believes that silver-based antimicrobials will continue to play an important role.
In addition to ionic silver-based inorganic
antimicrobials and organic antimicrobials, Life offers antimicrobials that use a botanical active based on a plant extract, targeted for consumer uses. Ellefsen says that the Life Natural range of antimicrobial additives and masterbatches is suitable for use in EVA, PVC, PU, PE, PP and other polymers and that it delivers the same efficacy as
www.compoundingworld.com
PHOTO: SANITIZED
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
