Encapsulation technologies to achieve high loading of a biorepellent on textiles

L. HERMIDA; J. ARATA; M. MIRÓ SPECOS; D. TOPOLLÁN; F. BUFFA; V. MUÑOZ; G.A. ABRAHAM

Bratislava

Congreso; International Conference on Bioencapsulation; 2014

Bioencapsulation Research Group

Repellent textiles have been developed as an alternative strategy for the control of different mosquito species, which are vectors of widely spread diseases such as malaria and dengue. The repellent finishing of textile materials is useful to avoid the contact with the skin and/or control the release of volatile substances. Citriodiol is one of the biopesticides tested and registered by the EPA, and included in the European Biocidal Products Directive 98/8/EC. We have previously encapsulated citriodiol by complex coacervation, applied it to cotton textiles and demonstrated its high repellent efficacy (Hermida 2011). A great variety of repellent textile products can be designed for different applications, therefore it is important to develop finishing treatments to achieve a high loading of the repellent and modulate its release.  In this work we show the encapsulation of Citriodiol with the biocompatible polymer Ethyl Cellulose (EC) using nanoprecipitation, emulsion-solvent evaporation and electrospray. The micro/nanoparticles were applied to cotton textiles and characterized. Alternatively, fabrics were grafted with ciclodextrins and further treated with Citriodiol to achieve reloadable textiles. The different developed technologies have been compared in order to select the most suitable for further field assays.