Research Projects

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted researchers to explore technologies to minimize the presence of infectious pathogens on surfaces, particularly in healthcare, transportation, schools, malls, theatres, businesses, and manufacturing sites. The food, pharmaceutical, and personal hygiene industries have strict production standards in their clean rooms, which must be sterile and clean to prevent contamination. Researchers have proposed solutions to prevent bacterial transmissions by killing or minimizing microbe attachment to surfaces. These solutions work through surface-bound active antimicrobial-based materials like biocidal coatings or creating pathogen-repelling surfaces. These technologies incorporate nanomaterials, chemical modifications, and micro-and nano-structuring of surfaces using coatings or protective films. However, viruses like SARS CoV-2 can remain on surfaces for up to 6 days, posing a potential risk of transmission. This highlights the need for effective, affordable, and sustainable technologies to eliminate virus transmission via surfaces. Water-dispersions (WD)-based coating solutions are well-accepted by environmental legislation due to their volatile organic content (VOC) products. The polyurethane-based water dispersions (WDPUs) market is rapidly growing due to its versatility, environmentally friendly nature, zero to very low VOC, low price, good bond strength, impact resistance, and flexibility. The proposed sustainable, environment-friendly, and water-based coating solutions for antimicrobial surfaces are promising for designing next-generation surface technologies that minimize infection transmission through surfaces like wood, paper, textiles, plastics, leather, and metal.