NB GmbH

Inorganic Antibacterial Nano Ceramics

Societal needs

The societal challenges are a major focus defined by the huge socio-economic potential of our product. This can be best, but not exclusively, highlighted by the situation in hospitals. So-called non-intentional infections in hospitals add up to an additional cost of 340 Mill €, 125.000 cases in 2013 (RIVM, 2014) in the Netherlands. and 600.000 cases and 15.000 non-necessary death cases in Germany! (Source: Spiegel online 2015). We believe our product can help reduce these infection rates and associated costs.

Applications

The market need is best described by the urgent necessity to replace nano silver as an antibacterial agent
in a range of products in the following sectors:

  • textiles
  • biomedical
  • health care/hygiene
  • food/agriculture
  • Environment
  • Packaging
  • Hobby (3D Printing)
  • Industrial

Taking the thousands of antibacterial products into account, the applications of our product are almost endless. Personal-care products like hand soaps, toothpaste, and deodorants all contain antibacterial materials.

So-called alternatives

Most household disinfectants contain either chlorine bleach, alcohol, quaternary ammonium chlorides (called “quats”), pine oil, or phenolic compounds. All of these ingredients can cause some negative health effects, and a disinfectant product is almost always more hazardous than a similar cleaner without the antimicrobial ingredient.
Triclosan (5-chloro-2(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)phenol) is the ingredient used in hand soaps and many other household items. Triclosan appears to be low in toxicity, but some people are alarmed by its structural similarities to an herbicide. One recent study found that when triclosan in water was exposed to ultraviolet light, a type of dioxin was formed. Concerns have also been raised over the discovery of triclosan in breast milk and the aquatic environment and the possibility that it may be an endocrine disruptor.