Hygienic Surfaces, Biocidal And Self-cleaning Coatings

It is well known there is a great interest inthe design and development of the so-called “hygienic surfaces”,referring to surfaces that not only provides biocidal activity but alsoto those that are easy to clean and even self-cleaning.

Achievingthese properties on a surface is possible by means of coatings andtreatments on specific surfaces, and in which nanotechnology plays akey role. Most of these coatings acquire their biocidal/self-cleaningcapacity by incorporating specific nanoparticles: basically silver (Ag)and titanium oxide (TiO2).

The development of these coatings iskey mainly in sectors such as architecture and construction, textiles,heat exchangers, air conditioning circuits, hygiene-health (hospitals,schools) and food processing.

The achievement of such coatingsmeans, not only a reduction in the problems of corrosion and in healthrisks, but also a reduction or elimination in the consumption ofbiocides and toxic industrial detergents.

Various methods andtechnologies currently exist that enable the obtaining of thesebiocidal surfaces, amongst which are the incorporation of nanoparticlesin organic resins (in ceramic matrixes), as well as the deposition inplasma-vacuum with incorporation of nanoparticles.

AnINASMET-Tecnalia research team has led the proposal for the projectknown as “Development and evaluation of coatings and surface conditionson steel for antibacterial and easy-to-clean properties, DECOBIOF”. Theaim is to design, develop and evaluate those surfaces withantibacterial and self-cleaning properties.

Apart from theparticipation of the Technological Centre, co-ordinator of the project,el the consortium is made up of CORUS UK Limited (UK), the Max PlanckInstitute (Germany), OCAS-Arce-lor N.V. (Belgium), SIMR (Sweden),ACERINOX (Spain) and the Centro Sviluppo Materiali (Italy).