PEBIOTE
Anchor peptides consist of a hydrophobic and hydrophilic part and are characterised by an excellent affinity to many common plastics (PP, PS, PE, PET). Anchor peptides offer great potential for use as adhesion promoters for textile coatings or as novel coatings on difficult-to-treat plastic substrates and other functional components. The aim is to investigate the general applicability of anchor peptides as additives for films and textile coatings. Therefore two strategies are pursued. On the one hand, the general applicability of already existing anchor peptides as adhesion promoters for polyolefins will be investigated and on the other hand newly functionalised anchor peptides will be developed. While the first strategy leads to a rapid introduction of anchor peptides into industrial applications, the second strategy allows the development of a broad anchor peptide portfolio. The transfer of the technology will be further accelerated by allergy and skin irritation tests of the developed bio-modules already during the project period. Some of the functionalities (e.g. antimicrobial, UV protection, dyes) will be achieved by linking the anchor peptides with functionalised nanocellulose or lignin. These bio building blocks have the advantage that they are completely biodegradable and that the technology can also be used in the future for the functionalisation of biodegradable plastics (e.g. PLA). The value-added chain from the manufacturer of peptides and celluloses, via the service providers in protein design for specific applications (e.g. PLA) to the users in textiles and packaging is represented in the project support committee. This promotes the translation of research results in SMEs, as customer or producer networks are already established during the project. This will lead to follow-up projects and innovations.