In the joint project "BakTex", Hohenstein and the Institute of Textile Technology at RWTH Aachen University are developing medical textiles with reduced bacterial adhesion to reduce hospital infections.

Hospital infections are a major socio-economic problem worldwide. Studies show that textiles contaminated with germs are one of the major sources of infection transmission. Therefore, antimicrobial textiles can be used for the purpose of infection prevention. In general, the adhesion of germs to surfaces can be reduced by microrough topography. Technologies inspired from nature, such as the lotus effect or sharkskin, are already successfully used on surfaces to reduce the adhesion of microorganisms or dirt particles. The newly developed fiber topography with reduced bacterial adhesion can additionally be combined with additives to achieve full antibacterial effectiveness. The aim is to reduce the germ load on textile surfaces by more than 99.9 percent.