The prevention of pathogenic contamination of air or water presents a major challenge nowadays. Alternative approaches to effectively reduce or inhibit the colonization of microorganisms rely on the use of antifouling and bactericidal functional coatings on different air or water filtering systems. The present study, conducted within the NanoBloc® project framework, seeks to advance the development of innovative nanocoatings with antiviral and antimicrobial properties by using sustainable synthesis methods on different textile and metallic filters. Due to its numerous advantages, such as minimal equipment requirements and applicability to various three-dimensional substrates with intricate geometries, electrophoretic deposition (EPD) was chosen as the appropriate technique to produce coatings based on the natural polymer chitosan, silver nitrate and bioactive glasses on metallic filters [1]. The so produced coated filters were characterized regarding their morphology, chemical composition, filtering capabilities, and antibacterial properties. The findings suggest that these developed coatings exhibit high morphological homogeneity, adequate filtering functionality and excellent antimicrobial activity, and thus could serve as suitable materials across a range of applications.

References

[1] E. Avcu et al., Progress in Materials Science, 103, 2019, 69-108.