Antibacterial glaze fabrication and characterization for the ceramic tile

In this study, commercial ceramic glaze structures containing silica as a main component and Na, K, Ca oxides as flux provider, have been modified with different fillers, sintered at 1080 °C and 1200 °C and examined by chemical and physical techniques respectively. For this purpose, commercially available ceramic glaze solution obtained from Serel Ceramic Company, has been prepared with additional ingredients with different rates namely H3BO3, ZnO, pure boron, TiO2, ulexite and AgNO3 which can be introduced mechanically into the solution for a better mechanical resistivity. For determination of optimum sintering conditions at different temperature regimes has been studied, pure and doped samples have been analyzed with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) for microstructures and by XRD for phase analysis and Schimatz AG-II 250 kN for three point bending test. SEM analysis provided information about the alteration of the surface properties with particle size distribution and overall morphology of the surface, these results indicated the final composition of samples was not undergo major changes and this information supported by XRD analysis. With the additive contribution sintering temperature was reduced to 1080 °C which can be highlighted as a method for low cost green ceramics. Industrial ceramics are sintered at 1200 °C and their pressure resistivity is measured as 416.288 N/mm2. Interestingly after additives; 5% ZnO and 5% of H3BO3 in a lower temperature (1080 °C), ceramic samples have better compressive strengths (425.938 and 463.097 N/mm2 respectively). Moreover, in addition to the compressive strength, the antimicrobial activity of ceramic samples was examined. For this purpose the bacteria; Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P.a) and Staphylacoccus aureus (S.a) were inoculated on pure ceramic body and after the incubation 3.5x105 bacteria was count (Negative control). Then firstly 0.2% AgNO3 was added to glaze samples as a additive [Inhibition ratio (IR): P.a. = 29.58% ; S.a. = 4.65%) and then following TiO2 (IR: P.a. = 96.70% ; S.a.= 98.31%), ulexite (IR: P.a. = 97.15% ; S.a. = 99.99%) and ZnO (IR: P.a.= 36.62% ; S.a.= 9.30%) were added at a rate of 1% on this structure, respectively, samples sintered at 1200 ° C and result showed that the inhibition rates against to bacteria was increased. In this study, new ceramic tile showing significant antibacterial activity that important for human health was produced and characterized in the light of the nanotechnological developments.