Water safe antimicrobial coatings for touch electronics

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The development of an antimicrobial cleaning formulation for "Touch" electronics is proposed. This environmentally safe design coats onto receptive surfaces and renders them inhospitable to pathogenic bacteria, stopping the spread of disease. This has the potential to create a paradigm shift in the way that touch surfaces are cleaned. Touch electronics, including tablets, laptops, cell phones and monitors are constantly exposed to potentially harmful bacteria from their surrounding environments. Bacteria can survive undetected in colonies called biofilms on surfaces that support pathogenic bacteria. Constantly accessed touch surfaces are ideal locations to accumulate and help spread such pathogenic bacteria. This spread is particularly worrisome for immune compromised patients in hospitals or other care facilities. Whoosh successfully introduced a high gloss non-alcoholic, non-ammonia disinfectant ideal for the removal of bacteria from "touch" surfaces in Jan 2014. Unfortunately, overtime, pathogenic bacteria can regrow on these cleaned surfaces and require more frequent cleaning. To build in a more permanent solution to the proliferation of bacteria on these surfaces, a non-toxic antimicrobial coating is required. The Foucher Group at Ryerson have recently developed a UV-curable antimicrobial coating suitable for non-porous surfaces. We propose that this coating be an integral component of the Whoosh's formulation to keep tablet, phone or laptop surfaces bacteria resistant. The non-leaching coatings fix to surfaces by exposure to a UV light source. A successful formulation will deliver the next generation cleaning/antimicrobial coating to Whoosh and help Whoosh maintain its leadership position. The benefits to Canada are job creation in chemical manufacturing and a real solution to positively impact health outcomes.