Research team tests silver-titanium nanoparticle idea on leather
05/01/2017
Lead researcher, Dr Robert Franz from the Montanuniversität in Leoben, Austria, presented the team’s findings so far at a symposium in Nashville at the end of 2016. He explained that he and his colleagues have used a process known as ‘magnetron spattering’ to create the nanoparticles in the lab. The process resulted in a fine titanium-dioxide layer embedded with silver nanoparticles. Although these titanium-silver nanoparticles are not commercially available, the process to manufacture them should prove easy to scale up, according to Dr Franz.
“For other materials these processes are already widely used in industry,” he commented after the Nashville event, the AVS 63rd International Symposium and Exhibition. He explained that researchers are now trying to work out the best way to apply the antimicrobial layer to leather. One method they have tested so far involves mixing the titanium-silver nanoparticles with film-forming polymers and coating the leather surface with the film.
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