Chemical Vapour Deposition for the Generation of Visible Light Activated Antimicrobial Coatings

这项研究的目标是制备能在正常房间照明条件下工作的新型抗菌涂料。新的涂层将能够使用可见光对表面进行去污和去污，并能够对所有细菌和病毒做到这一点。它们在医院环境中将特别有用，在那里它们将对减少医院获得性感染的传播--特别是MRSA--大有裨益。涂层的工作原理是吸收可见光，并将其转化为被称为自由基的活性物种，这些自由基可以咀嚼并破坏细菌或病毒的壁，从而使有机体失活。这项新科学的关键部分是，通过修改一种名为二氧化钛的现有材料，我们将能够确保它能够捕捉可见光。到目前为止，二氧化钛涂层只有在与灯光源的紫外光相结合时才有效。这些都是危险的(直接紫外线会对眼睛造成伤害)，能量密集型，不适合大规模使用。新的涂层将通过化学气相沉积产生。这是一种从气相中的材料铺设涂层的方法。我们已经开发出一种新的组合方法，它使分级组成的薄膜能够被沉积。通过测量薄膜在每个点的性能，我们能够非常迅速地检查薄膜中的最佳成分组合，以获得最大的可见光。新涂层在破坏有机物、细菌和病毒方面的有效性将在正常的房间照明下进行测试。新涂层的另一个特征是形成非常光滑的表面。事实上，水在表面形成水坑和薄片，而不是水滴或小溪。这意味着涂层可以均匀地洗掉表面上的任何污垢或细菌。该项目的一个令人兴奋的方面是测量细菌在表面的附着情况，并测量生物膜形成的难易程度。生物膜阶段是评估膜形成、附着和定植污染表面的程度的关键阶段。我们预计，这些新涂层将被证明是细菌极难定居的。

The goal of this research is to prepare new antimicrobial coatings that will work under normal room lighting conditions. The new coatings will be able to use visible light to dsetroy and decontaminate the surface and will be able to do so for all bacteria and viruses. They will be particularly useful in a hospital environment where they will be of great benefit in reducing transmission of hospital acquired infections- in particular MRSA.The coatings work by absorbing visible light and converting this into active species called radicals that chew up and destroy the walls of a bacteria or virus and hence inactivate the organism. The key part of the new science here is that by modifying an existing material called titanium dioxide we will be able to ensure that it can capture visible light. Up to now the titanium dioxide coatings would only be effective in combination with ultra-violet light from lamp sources. These are dangerous (direct UV can cause eye damage), energy intensive and not pratical to use on a large scale.The new coatings will be produced by chemical vapour deposition. This is a method of laying down a coating from material in the gas phase. We have developed a new combinatorial approach which enables films of graded composition to be depositied. By measuring the properties of the film at each point we are very rapidly able to examine what is the best composition mix in the film to obtain maximum visible light havesting.The efficacy of the new coatings at destroying organic chemicals, bacteri and a virus will be examined using normal room lighting.One further feature of the new coatings is that form very slippery surfaces. In fact water forms puddles and sheets on the surface rather than droplets or rivulets. This means that the coatings wash down uniformly any dirt or bacteria on their surfaces. One exciting aspect of the project is to measure how well bacteria will adhere to the surface and to measure the ease of biofilm formation. The biofilm stage is a critical one in assessing how well a film will form, adhere and colonise - contaminate a surface. We anticipate that these new coatinsg will prove exceptionally difficult for bacteria to colonise.