Anti-microbial, Easy to clean Coatings on Glass, Metals, Plastics and Fibres

Contamination of walls, floors and surfaces of many articles that we use in day-to-day life is the main reason for disease to spread rapidly. Hence, ensuring that these surfaces are free of microbial contamination, especially in hospitals, is an important factor in maintaining the general health of people. Silver in the form of metallic silver or silver salts is known to be toxic to micro-organism, particularly bacteria while being relatively harmless to a man. When nano scaled silver is introduced to a hybrid sol-gel matrix, it results in an antimicrobial coating due to the silver nanoparticles and scratch resistant due to the inorganic network of sol-gel coatings providing high degree of abrasion resistance too. This helps in retarding the growth of microbes and thus minimizes the use of autoclaving process or cleaning using harsh chemicals. Other functionalities such as easy-to-clean property can also be incorporated into the coatings.