Sol-gel coatings with essential oil to prevent fungal defacement on bricks

R. ROMAGNOLI; C. DEYÁ; N. BELLOTTI

Río de Janeiro

Simposio; 9th Latin American Biodeterioration and Biodegradation Symposium. National Institute of Technology; 2016

National Institute of Technology

Outdoor structural materials such as brick, stone and wood, among others, need to maintain their natural appearance during their service life due to aesthetic reasons. However, these materials are susceptible to microbiological colonization; bricks for instance have high porosity and high water absorption consequently, they are more susceptible to biodeterioration. Especially, moulds are generally considered to be one of the major deteriorating agents of buildings materials. Bioactive coatings based on materials obtained by sol-gel process represent a promising option to control biofilm formation. In this sense, the present work proposes the addition of natural products as vegetables essential oils in a siliceous matrix for antifungal protection on bricks. The essential oils used in this research were pine, tea tree and geranium all of which are commercially available. The sol-gel precursor used was mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MTMO). The films were characterized by FTIR and surface tension measurements by the water/ethanol solutions method.