Many infectious diseases are acquired through casual contact with infected individuals and environmental sources. These environments include different hospital and office surfaces, food and drug processing facilities, classrooms and meeting facilities in schools; armed forces quarters, and private homes. While routine sanitation is fairy successful, it is costly and does not offer continuous protection and more importantly, no protection against fresh contamination. Self-disinfecting surface coatings containing bound antimicrobial agents can fulfill this task. The use of antimicrobial surface coatings while not aimed at producing a totally sterile environment may serve a useful purpose in areas where a permanent and more sanitary environment is necessary.
The specific aims of the proposed studies are to prepare model surface coatings, test for service utility and evaluate their antimicrobial activities toward selected broad-spectrum microorganisms. Thus, the overall objective of this research application is to evaluate the anti-microbial activities of silver impregnated surface coatings that can have commercial applications. The research will be carried out by developing series of acrylic polymer-based model latex coatings that contain antimicrobial agent. The antimicrobial activities of these coatings on the test substrates will be tested toward a selected panel of gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538, Bacillus subtilis ATCC 19659) and gram negative (Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 15442 and Escherichia coli ATCC 11229) bacteria. These strains of bacteria have been used as standards for testing of disinfectant efficacy using the AOAC Use-Dilution Methods and represent common bacteria encountered in health care and food preparation facilities. The antimicrobial activity will also be evaluated after exposing coated specimens to a wide variety of environmental conditions. The broader and long-term objectives are to develop economical and user-friendly self-disinfecting coatings that can be effective under variety of environmental conditions toward broader strain of bacteria.
