• HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Bioengineering

Self-cleaning, anti-reflective, microorganism-resistant coatings

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
August 8, 2016
in Bioengineering
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram
IMAGE

Coatings or paints are materials applied to different surfaces basically for decorative and protective purposes. Yet today the market for these materials is being subjected to increasingly tougher specifications. In addition to being decorative and protective, today’s coatings must have additional properties such as, for example, low microorganism-adherence, ease of cleaning or self-repair properties. The development of materials of this type, known as “functional coatings”, calls for the control not only of their physical properties (mainly to do with their morphology) but also of the chemical ones of the surfaces produced.

The research of Alexander Santiago set out to make a contribution towards the development of three types of functional coatings: ones that are resistant to microorganisms (for example for paints for seagoing vessels), and which have self-cleaning (hydrophobic paints) and anti-reflecting properties (for coating mobile phone screens or spectacle lenses).

Following the thread of other pieces of research conducted not only by members of the research group but also by members of a research group of the IBM Almaden Research Center San Jose in the United States, the researcher carried out numerous trials and tests in the three above-mentioned lines to obtain functional materials with the desired properties.

Reducing costs

The first of the hydrophobic coatings he explored was a type of copolymer that gives rise to spontaneous phase separation between its components. In other words, “one of the components of the copolymer (the polyurethane) gives the substrate adhesion and most of the other component (the siloxane) remains on the surface, which makes it rougher, and as it is also hydrophobic it stops organisms sticking to it,” explained Alexander Santiago. Through various measurements they confirmed that the hydrophobicity of the system depended to a greater extent on roughness than on the siloxane concentration on the surface. Protein absorption measurements were used to determine the restriction of the adhesion capacity of the microorganisms on these films. These trials showed that the microorganisms stuck less to the films displaying phase separation.

To obtain materials that would display a self-cleaning effect (within the line of hydrophobic coatings), inorganic nanoparticles of a hydrophobic nature were synthesised in advance and inserted into acrylic polymers using various methods. Specifically, they were silicon nanoparticles with an organic coating. The best results were obtained by spraying these nanoparticles onto acrylic films, and that way a super-hydrophobic surface was created offering very good self-cleaning properties in addition to a high level of toughness. The method used “turned out to be a fast and relatively cost-effective one,” said the researcher, “as we used silicon that is not as expensive as other substances used on the market.”

To obtain anti-reflecting properties, the films need to have a refractive index lower than that of the substrate, which can be achieved by inserting porosity into them. But the presence of the pores prevents the anti-reflecting surfaces from having suitable mechanical properties enabling them to be processed. In this respect, he studied the porosity/toughness relation with respect to the refractive index obtained and the results were promising.

As the researcher explained, “there is still work to be done because, for example, the nanoparticles do not take hold completely and because the final film with the nanoparticles is not as consistent as we would like”. As regards the copolymers studied in relation to the biological anti-contamination properties, he said that “the early results were fairly favourable,” and added that “they could be extrapolated, but the problem is that we are working on a laboratory scale”. Finally, the researcher explained that the subject of anti-reflective coatings was only at the early stages of research and “we are still improving it”.

###

Additional information

Alexander Santiago (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1986) is a graduate in Chemistry, has a Master’s in Applied Chemistry and Polymer Materials. He wrote up his PhD thesis in the Department of Polymer Science and Technology at the Faculty of Chemistry in Donostia-San Sebastian under the supervision of Dr Lourdes Irusta and Dr Alba González.

Bibliographical reference

A. Santiago, L. Irusta, T. Schäfer, A. Corres, L. Martin, and A. González. “Resistance to protein sorption as a model of antifouling performance of Poly(siloxane-urethane) coatings exhibiting phase separated morphologies”. Progress in Organic Coatings 99, p: 110-116 (2016).

Media Contact

Naiara Billalabeitia
[email protected]
0034-601-3453
@upvehu

http://www.ehu.es

The post Self-cleaning, anti-reflective, microorganism-resistant coatings appeared first on Scienmag.

Share12Tweet7Share2ShareShareShare1

Related Posts

blank

Robo-fish

September 19, 2016
blank

Mice born from ‘tricked’ eggs

September 17, 2016

UCLA researchers use stem cells to grow 3-D lung-in-a-dish

September 16, 2016

Sixteen MIT grad students named Siebel Scholars for 2017

September 16, 2016
Next Post
blank

Studies bolster evidence that insurance status affects cancer patients’ health outcomes

blank

New drug class gives hope for better treatments for incurable myeloma

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

POPULAR NEWS

  • IMAGE

    The map of nuclear deformation takes the form of a mountain landscape

    54 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14
  • People living with HIV face premature heart disease and barriers to care

    68 shares
    Share 27 Tweet 17
  • New drug form may help treat osteoporosis, calcium-related disorders

    41 shares
    Share 16 Tweet 10
  • New findings help explain how COVID-19 overpowers the immune system

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Tags

Medicine/HealthInfectious/Emerging DiseasesBiologycancerCell BiologyMaterialsGeneticsClimate ChangeTechnology/Engineering/Computer ScienceEcology/EnvironmentPublic HealthChemistry/Physics/Materials Sciences

Recent Posts

  • Impact of patient-reported symptom information on lumbar spine MRI Interpretation
  • Governments need to set clear rules for vaccinating health care workers against COVID-19
  • In ED patients with chest and abdominal pain, care delivered by physicians and APPs is similar
  • New book on Influenza: The Cutting Edge from CSHLPress
  • Contact Us

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In