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

水处理和食品加工设备表面的细菌感染可传染给人，引起严重疾病，如最近爆发的大肠杆菌和李斯特菌。此外，医院的表面尤其危险，因为它们可能通过人类接触传播细菌。植入医疗设备周围的细菌感染也令人担忧，通常需要昂贵的创伤性侵入性手术来治疗感染。一些细菌已经对抗生素药物产生了耐药性，即所谓的超级细菌，无论如何，在设备表面施用抗生素药物是不可行的。非常小的银颗粒或纳米颗粒已经显示出非常强的抗生素特性，但是如果银浸出，高浓度的银可能是有毒的。这些纳米颗粒已被纳入使用许多不同的工艺，各种各样的产品的表面。该研究项目将开发一种含有银纳米粒子的表面处理技术，该技术可以永久应用于各种金属表面，包括水处理、食品加工和医院设备以及医疗设备。等离子喷涂是一种热喷涂技术，其中金属粉末被电加热并喷涂到

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