Claudia Vineis

• Senior Researcher
• Senior Researcher at Italian National Research Council

Natural (cotton) and synthetic (polyester) fabrics functionalized with the SilverSil xerogel powder dispersed in water‐repellent, ecofriendly commercial textile finishings, acquire substantial antibacterial activity against both Gram‐positive and Gram‐negative bacteria. Here demonstrated against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, said acti...

Natural (cotton) and synthetic (polyester) fabrics functionalized with the SilverSil xerogel powder dispersed in water-repellent. ecofriendly commercial textile finishings acquire substantial antibacterial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Here demonstrated against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli bacteria, s...

The problem of microbial resistance to antibiotics makes it necessary to develop new materials capable of overcoming the resistance to the chemicals currently used. Herein, the antibacterial properties of modified bamboo powder are tested and compared with modified cellulose isolated from soybean hulls. Such biomasses are functionalized in a water...

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Re-designing existing nano-silver technologies to optimize efficacy and sustainability has a tangible impact on preventing infections and limiting the spread of pathogenic microorganisms. Advancements in manufacturing processes could lead to more cost-effective and scalable production methods, making nano-silver-based antimicrobial products more ac...

This report demonstrates a case study within the ASINA project, aimed at instantiating a roadmap with quantitative metrics for Safe(r) and (more) Sustainable by Design (SSbD) options. We begin with a description of ASINA’s methodology across the product lifecycle, outlining the quantitative elements within: Physical-Chemical Features (PCFs), Key De...

Hydroxyapatite, a mineral from the apatite group, is widely distributed in living organisms and largely studied because of its many properties, including the adsorption of many different substances. In this...

The frontiers of antibacterial materials in the biomedical field are constantly evolving since infectious diseases are a continuous threat to human health. In this work, waste-wool-derived keratin electrospun nanofibers were blended with copper by an optimized impregnation procedure to fabricate antibacterial membranes with intrinsic biological act...

Cotton and polyamide 6,6 fabrics coated with chitosan, a natural biopolymer, have been tested against two different bacteria strains: Staphylococcus aureus as Gram-positive bacterium and Escherichia coli as Gram-negative bacterium. Using the ASTM standard method (Standard Test Method for Determining the Antimicrobial Activity of Antimicrobial Agent...

Two kni:ed wool fabrics with the same cover factor, yarn count and twist were used our experiment. The only variable introduced was the mean diameter of the wools, 19.2 μm and 25.6 μm. The aim of the work was to evaluate the effect of proteolyHc enzyme treatment on the pilling behaviour of fabrics, and in parHcular on the yarn structure with differ...

Perovskite-type compounds have found application in environmental remediation and in clean energy production, fundamental sectors for sustainable development. A challenge for these materials is the fine-tuning of their chemical composition and their chemical-physical characteristics, for example, microstructure, morphology and ability to form oxyge...

Soybean hulls (SBHs) are one of the main by-products of soybean crushing, usually destined for animal feeding or to become a putrescible waste. In this work, we upgraded the SBHs to materials with antimicrobial properties. After the extraction of soybean peroxidase from SBHs, an enzyme applicable in different technological sectors and naturally pre...

In the current state of the art, textile products and materials generate a significant environmental impact since they are not managed under a circular economy paradigm. It is urgent to define new sustainable paths in the textiles industry by setting up materials, technologies, processes, and business models to reuse and recycle textiles production...

In recent years, multifunctional inorganic−organic hybrid materials have been widely investigated in order to determine their potential synergetic, antagonist, or independent effects in terms of reactivity. The aim of this study was to design and characterize a new hybrid material by coupling well-known photocatalytic TiO2 nanoparticles with a mixt...

Keratin is a biocompatible and biodegradable protein as the main component of wool and animal hair fibers. Keratin-based materials support fibroblasts and osteoblasts growth. Keratin has been extracted by sulphitolysis, a green method (no harmful chemicals) with a yield of 38–45%. Keratin has been processed into nanofibers from its solutions by ele...

The use of silver nanoparticles (NPs) in medical devices is constantly increasing due to their excellent antimicrobial properties. In wound dressings, Ag NPs are commonly added in large excess to exert a long-term and constant antimicrobial effect, provoking an instantaneous release of Ag ions during their use or the persistence of unused NPs in th...

A natural pH-sensitive dye, curcumin, and a synthetic pH-sensitive dye, Bromothymol blue, were successfully applied on cotton/polyamide 6 medical dressings. The work addresses two different topics: on the one hand the dyeing process of the medical devices; on the other hand, the evaluation of the dyed medical dressing biocompatibility. Different dy...

Cysteine-S-sulfonated keratin, protein extracted from wool fibers by sulfitolysis, is a natural polyelectrolyte typically used in biomedical materials like scaffolds and smart biointerfaces. In order to extend and tune its properties, a study of the content of secondary structures, thermostability, biocidal activity and in vitro tests of cell viabi...

An effective, eco-friendly and easily scalable nanosilver-based technology offers affordable and broad-spectrum antimicrobial solutions against SARS-CoV-2 and Escherichia coli .

The development of asymmetric membranes—i.e., matching two fibrous layers with selected composition and morphological properties to mimic both the epidermis and dermis—currently represents one of the most promising strategies to support skin regeneration during the wound healing process. Herein, a new asymmetric platform fabricated by a sequential...

Protein-based nanofibres are commonly used in the biomedical field to support cell growth. For this study, the cell viability of wool keratin-based nanofibres was tested. Membranes were obtained by electrospinning using formic acid, hexafluoroisopropanol, and water as solvents. For aqueous solutions, polyethylene oxide blended with keratin was empl...

In this study, carbon screen-printed sensors (C-SPEs) were functionalized with a high reactivity carbonaceous material (HRCM) to measure the ascorbic acid (AA) concentration in fresh-cut fruit (i.e., watermelon and apple) with a low content of vitamin C. HRCM and the functionalized working electrodes (WEs) were characterized by SEM and TEM. The inc...

Protein-based nanomaterials are gaining growing interest in biomedical field. The present paper evaluates the physico-chemical properties of electrospun nanofibers resulting from the combination of gelatin with keratin (from wool) and sericin (from silk) to validate their use for in vitro interaction studies. We demonstrated that that presence of s...

The main objective of this work is the preparation of nano-fibrous mats (NFM) from polyamide 6 (PA6) reinforced and functionalized by renewable proteinic waste and examining their potential use for the sorption of heavy metal ions and dyes from wastewater from textile plants. Two renewable waste biopolymers; namely keratin (from waste of wool combi...

Polypyrrole (PPy) nanoparticles (NPs) are used for the coating of materials, such as textiles, with biomedical applications, including wound care and tissue engineering, but they are also promising antibacterial agents. In this work, PPy NPs were used for the spray-coating of textiles with antimicrobial properties. The functional properties of the...

In response to the nowadays battle against SARS‐CoV‐2, we designed a new class of high performant filter media suitable to advance the facemask technology and provide new efficient widespread solutions against virus propagation. By means of the electrospinning technology we developed filter media based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofibers doped wi...

Wool is sensitive toward the effect of alkaline solutions which are usually used in the dissolution of wool fibers to regenerate keratin. In this investigation, the effect of different alkalis on the chemical composition and the secondary structure of wool was studied. Wool was treated with equivalent amounts of alkali metal hydroxides (lithium, so...

Electrospinning is gaining increasing interest in the biomedical field as an eco-friendly and economic technique for production of random and oriented polymeric fibers. The aim of this review was to give an overview of electrospinning potentialities in the production of fibers for biomedical applications with a focus on the possibility to combine b...

This paper explores the possibility of dyeing textile fabrics with halochromic dyes. Five different halochromic dyes were tested: bromocresol purple, m‐cresol purple, chlorophenol red, curcumin and bromothymol blue. Preliminary dyeing was carried out on wool, polyacrylonitrile, polyester, polyamide 6.6, cotton and cellulose acetate at 100°C for 40...

Electrospinning is the leading technology to fabricate fibrous scaffolds that mimic the architecture of the extracellular matrix of natural tissues. In order to improve the biological response, a consolidated trend involves the blending of synthetic polymers with natural proteins to form protein-rich fibers that include selected biochemical cues ab...

Coupling of keratin with titanium surfaces is here realized both through thick coatings and molecular functionalization. This coupling has the final aim both of chemical and mechanical protection of the titanium surfaces and of improving interaction of titanium implants with soft tissues in transmucosal and percutaneous implants. Wool-derived kerat...

: Biomolecules and extracts from natural products are gaining increasing interest due to their beneficial properties for human health, low toxicity, environmental compatibility and sustainability. In this work, keratin, chitosan and peppermint essential oil have been used for the preparation of coatings on titanium substrates for biomedical implant...

Chitosan was grafted on the surface of a cotton gauze (20, 50, and 100 mg chitosan g⁻¹ cotton) to improve its stability in aqueous solutions. The adsorption of hexavalent chromium ions from water on the grafted chitosan was evaluated to determine, by means of linear and nonlinear models, the kinetic and isotherm adsorption of the process. The kinet...

This review is devoted to discuss the unique characteristics of multi-jet electrospinning technique, compared to other spinning techniques, and its utilization in spinning of natural as well as synthetic polymers. The advantages and inadequacies of the current commercial chemical spinning methods; namely wet spinning, melt spinning, dry spinning, a...

The technological quest for flexible devices to be interfaced with the biological world has driven the recent reinvention of bioderived polymers as multifunctional active and passive constituent elements for electronic and photonic devices to use in the biomedical field. Keratin is one of the most important structural proteins in nature to be used...

Keratin proteins extracted from wool fibers by sulfitolysis were electrospun for the production of active nanofiber membranes (NFMs). The keratin NFMs were composited with nylon woven fabric for improving their mechanical properties as a filtration material. The prepared membranes were characterized in terms of morphology, pore size, contact angle,...

The use of bioactive proteins such as keratin has been successfully explored to improve the biological interface of scaffolds with cells during the tissue regeneration. In this work, it is optimized the fabrication of nanofibers combining wool keratin extracted by sulfitolysis, with polycaprolactone (PCL) in order to design bicomponent fibrous matr...

Antimicrobial textiles can contribute to the fighting against antibiotic resistance pathogenic microorganisms. Polypyrrole is a conjugated polymer that exerts a biocidal action thanks to positive charges on its backbone chain produced during it synthesis. In this work, dispersions of stable polypyrrole nanoparticles were produced by chemical oxidat...

Cotton gauzes coated with chitosan have been tested as water filter for biological disinfection against Gram-positive bacteria. The present study develops the previous ones, aiming to the stability evaluation of ultraviolet-cured chitosan coating of cotton gauzes in order to optimize the chitosan amount applied to the substrate, lowering the add-on...

Electrospinning is a versatile and promising technology for the production of polymer-based nanofibres. Composite nanofibres suitable for filtration of air and water have been developed by merging biopolymer processing and sol-gel techniques using electrospinning technology. A fine control of large-scale nanofibre formation is required to achieve r...

This work aims to develop methodologies and tools to support the design and management of sustainable processes for the production of biodegradable polyhydroxyalcanoates (PHAs) biopolymers. PHAs are linear polyesters produced in nature by bacteria through aerobic fermentation of many carbon sources, completely biodegradable and biocompatible. We ca...

Keratin is a high-sulphur content protein, highly abundant in nature since it is the major component of feathers, hair, wool, horns and nails. In recent years, keratin-based materials have received great consideration due to its unique features in terms of ability to absorb heavy metals and other toxic compounds, thus resulting particularly useful...

Two different commercial bleaching products containing hypochlorite were used on different fabrics (plain-weave cotton, knitted cotton, plain-weave polyester-cotton and knitted lycra-cotton) to verify possible fibres damages. Bleaching products differ each other for the alkaline formulation. In particular, one of them has an alkaline bleaching form...

Biomaterials surface modification represents a very attractive tool to modulate host tissue response. Surface modifications of titanium for bone contact applications have been widely investigated, while only few papers can be found regarding modifications aimed at soft tissue contact. However, soft tissue healing represents a crucial step for percu...

This chapter summarizes the most recent research about antimicrobial electrospun nanofibers produced with natural-based polymers and products thereof (i.e., proteins, cellulose, chitosan).In recent years, nanofibrous mats derived from natural polymers have attracted increasing attention for biomedical applications thanks to their biocompatibility,...

Peri-implantitis is a severe condition affecting the success of transmucosal dental implants: tissue healing is severely limited by the inflammatory processes that come about to control homeostasis in the surrounding...

Wool keratin (natural resource) and citric acid (effective preservative) were mixed in water to produce a transparent film for application in active packaging. This film showed excellent biocidal effect, high elongation value (600%) and little loss of keratin after immersion in water. The capability of citric acid to bind keratin macromolecules by...

The use of antimicrobial compounds in textiles has grown dramatically over the last decades. The potential application field is wide. It ranges from industrial textiles exposed to weather such as awnings, screens and tents; upholstery used in large public areas such as hospitals, hotels and stations; fabrics for transports; protective clothing and...

The method based on the ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray mass spectrometry (UPLC/ESI–MS) instrument was used for the identification and quantification of the most commercial Bovidae fibres (wool, cashmere and yak). In the present paper, this method was developed and validated by the authors and confirmed by many ana...

Blends of wool keratin and polyamide 6 (PA6) have shown interesting adsorbent properties in filtration. In this work, the miscibility of keratin and PA6 was studied for the first time through rheological measurements of diluted blend solutions. In particular, the immiscibility between the two polymers in different blend proportions was observed by...

Curcuma powder was used to dye cotton and polyamide 6,6 fabrics in order to produce textile-based optical pH sensors. Both fabrics showed a bright yellow color after dyeing and demonstrated color changes (towards red) when contacted with basic solutions. Color change and sensitivity differ for cotton and for polyamide. Curcuma-dyed cotton shows col...

Periimplantitis and epithelial downgrowth are nowadays the main conditions associated to transmucosal dental implants. Gingival fibroblasts can play an important role in periimplantitis because they are the promoters of the inflammatory process and eventual tissue homeostasis and destruction. Moreover, the related inflammatory state is commonly dri...

Electrospinning is here used for the first time to prepare nanofibers including a host/guest complex in a keratin/poly(ethylene oxide) matrix. The host is a lipid binding protein and the guest is an insoluble bactericidal molecule, irgasan, bound within the protein internal cavity. The obtained nanofibers, characterized by scanning electron microsc...

Antibacterial activity against Gram-negative bacteria of polypyrrole-coated fabrics has been demonstrated in the past. In this work, biocidal efficacy of polypyrrole has been evaluated against Gram-positive bacteria on textiles with different polypyrrole loading. Excellent bacterial reduction (≥99%) was found on cotton fabrics containing more than...

Polypyrrole is widely used as coating to produce electrically conductive textiles. Counter-ions (i.e. doping agents) were embedded in polypyrrole to improve electrical conductivity. Good electrical performances are required for several applications, such as microwave attenuation/electro-magnetic interference shielding, heat generation, electro-stat...

Few polymers with practical and technological appeal can be electrospun into nanofibers from water solutions. The production of polymer nanofibers from water solution is considered green, up-scalable and versatile. From this point of view, the use of nanoparticles in the form of water colloidal suspension instead of nano-powder should be more affor...

In this study, we aimed to examine to study the effects of heating treatments on wool-derived keratin nanofibers obtained by electrospinning. Interestingly, the keratin nanofibers did not lose their nanofibrous shape at high temperatures. On the contrary, the diameter of keratin nanofibers significantly decreased after heating. Even the chemical st...

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was studied as an alternative qualitative method to identify different textile animal hair fibres. Differentiation of speciality or luxury fibres (such as cashmere) from other animal cheaper fibres (such as sheep’s wool or yak) is essential to repress adulteration of textile products. Moreover, DSC analysis c...

Communicable diseases can be transmitted by contaminated water. Water decontamination process is fundamental to eliminate microorganisms. In this work, cotton gauzes were coated with chitosan using an UV-curing process or cationized by introduction of quaternary ammonium groups and tested, in static and dynamic conditions, as water filter for biolo...

A new objective method has been developed for the identification of animal hair fibres, in particular wool, cashmere and yak. Enzymatic digestion of keratin extracted from these fibres and peptide analysis by ultra-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray–mass spectrometry (UPLC/ESI–MS) allows not only qualitative determination of the presenc...

In the present paper, a proteomic method for species determination in fibres has been developed. Keratin was extracted from yak, wool and cashmere fibres and digested by trypsin, providing peptide mixtures that were analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS) in order to identify peptidic species-specif...

Two different production ways of antibacterial cotton fabrics by means of triclosan inclusion into a β-cyclodextrin cavity have been compared. On the one hand, triclosan has been dissolved into an aqueous solution of a β-cyclodextrin derivative with the aim of including the antibacterial agent into the cavity before grafting the β-cyclodextrin on a...

In the present paper, a proteomicmethod for species determination in fibres has been developed. Keratin was extracted from yak, wool and cashmere fibres and digested by trypsin, providing peptide mixtures that were analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled with electrospraymass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS) in order to identify peptidic species-specific...

In this work, adhesion of different nanofiber mats to a polypropylene nonwoven was studied. In particular, low-temperature oxygen plasma treatment was investigated as a potential interface engineering tool to use for enhancing adhesion between polypropylene nonwoven and nanofibers. Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and polyamide-6 (PA6) nanofibrous mats w...

This paper describes application and evaluation of polypyrrole as an antibacterial polymer. Polypyrrole was produced embedding two doping agents: chloride and dicyclohexyl sulfosuccinate ions. Stability of the antibacterial efficacy of polypyrrole deposited on cotton fabrics was assessed before and after three different kinds of washing (namely, la...

A new approach to the objective identification of the different animal hair fibres based on the application of monoclonal antibodies has been discussed. Three different extraction methods including metabisulphite/urea, dithiothreitol/urea, thiourea/urea/dithiothreitol were compared to evaluate efficiency and repeatability in extracting keratin from...

Wool fibers were submitted to “green hydrolysis” with superheated water in a microwave reactor, in view of the potential exploitation of keratin-based industrial and stock-farming wastes. The liquid fraction was separated by filtration from the solid fraction, which consists mainly of small fragments of wool fibers and other insoluble protein aggre...

In this study, nanofibre mats for chemical adsorption of heavy metals were prepared by electrospinning blends of hydrolyzed keratin (HK) and polyamide 6 (PA6) in formic acid. Viscosity measurements of the spinning solutions and morphological analyses of the fracture sections of the same polymer blends cast into films, suggested intermolecular inter...

In this study, mats made of randomly oriented pure keratin nanofibres (~400 nm diameter) were prepared by electrospinning and tested for Cu 2+ adsorption. Batch adsorption tests were carried out at pH 6, with different Cu 2+ concentrations and contact times. The adsorption capacity and the removal efficiency are higher than those of conventional wo...

The purpose of this work was to develop a textile finish based on radical UV-curing of chitosan on cotton and silk to confer antimicrobial properties. Fabrics were impregnated with a solution of 2% w chitosan in aqueous acetic acid (2% v/v) added of 2-hydroxy-2-methylphenylpropane-1-one (2% w/w with respect to chitosan) as photoinitiator and cured...

Researches concerning the development of polymer biocides represent a great challenge for both academic world and industry. This review will cover most recent advances in antimicrobial polymers for textile coating and finishing. Methods of synthesis, application and grafting of such polymers on textile substrates will be illustrated. Biocidal perfo...

Mats of randomly oriented nanosized filaments, prepared by electrospinning wool keratin/polyamide 6 blends in formic acid, were evaluated as adsorbents of Cu2+ ions. The adsorption capacity was evaluated as a function of the nanofibre composition, specific surface area, initial metal ion concentration, contact time and pH of the solution. The adsor...

Wool and hair can be regarded as bio-composite keratin-based fibres made up of spindle shaped cortical cells oriented along the fibre, embedded in an amorphous protein matrix. This natural composite structure has been exploited to prepare cheap and easy keratin-based films. Wool was submitted to alkali treatment, rinse, and ultrasonic disruption of...

The extra-fine, soft and warm fibres used by the textile industry for manufacturing high-quality, luxury textiles are obtained from the undercoat hair of several domestic mammals of the genera Capra, Bos, Camelus, and Lama. The demand for ‘speciality fibres’ by the fashion world represents an important opportunity for livelihoods, on condition that...

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Large amount of protein wastes, such as fibre by-products from the wool textile industry and poor quality wools from stock-farming and butchery, are currently disposed of. Their pooling and processing would allow the production of innovative bio-plastics suitable for novel large-scale uses (compostable films for agriculture and packaging, filaments...

Keratin regenerated from wool and fibroin regenerated from silk were mixed in different proportions using formic acid as the common solvent. Both solutions were cast to obtain films and electrospun to produce nanofibers. Scanning electron microscopy investigation showed that, for all electrospun blends (except for 100% keratin where bead defects ar...

Keratin proteins are the major component of hair, feathers, wool and horns and represent an important source of renewable raw materials for many applications. Regenerated keratin has useful properties such as biocompatibility and biodegradability. Moreover, keratin materials can absorb heavy metal ions, formaldehyde and other VOCs. In this work, re...

Graessley's theory has been applied to keratin/PEO concentrated aqueous solutions giving qualitative insight to the rheology of these polymer blends in electrospinning. The shear rate dependent viscosity of different blends was compared with that of pure polymer solutions. The characteristic time τη was calculated by the minimum value of at the beg...

Histological components from wool fibre wastes were extracted by an enzyme-ultrasonic treatment, characterised by SDS-PAGE and successively included, in different proportions, in a cellulose acetate matrix to make composite film-forming blends, suitable for film casting and filament spinning. Chemical, thermal and mechanical properties were charact...

The performances and properties of the fine hairs from the coats of several domestic and wild mammals, namely the "speciality animal fibres" used for manufacturing high quality, luxury textiles, are influenced by the domes-tication process, heritability, hybridisation, nutrition, and life environment. In this work, the fibre morphology and cell str...

Protein material resulting from chemical free steam explosion of wool was mixed in different proportion with polyamide 6 in formic acid. The viscosity of the blend solutions decreases with the increase of the protein amount in the blend. Nanofibres produced by electrospinning of these polymer blends show an increase of the filament diameters with i...

Structural characteristics of keratin regenerated from water (KW) and from formic (KF) acid solutions were compared. Amino acid composition and molecular weight distribution of KW and KF samples were studied by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and SDS-PAGE electrophoresis. Turbidity measurement showed that keratin dissolved in formic a...