Development and assessment of plasma spray process for surface treatment with anti-microbial properties

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Bacterial infections on surfaces of water treatment and food processing equipment can be transmitted to people, causing severe illness, as with recent E coli and listeria outbreaks. Furthermore, surfaces in hospitals are especially risky since they may transmit bacteria through human touch. Bacterial infections around implanted medical devices are also concerning and typically require expensive and traumatic invasive surgery to treat the infection. Some bacteria have developed resistance to antibiotic drugs, so-called superbugs, and anyhow applying antibiotic drugs to the equipment surfaces is not feasible. Very small silver particles, or nanoparticles, have shown very strong antibiotic characteristics however high silver concentration can be toxic if the silver leaches out. These nanoparticles have been incorporated into surfaces of a wide variety of products using a number of different processes. This research project will develop a surface treatment containing silver nanoparticles using plasma spray technology that could be permanently applied to a wide variety of metal surfaces, including water treatment, food processing and hospital equipment as well as medical devices. Plasma spraying is a thermal spray technique where metal powder is electrically heated and sprayed onto a