Developing antimicrobial surfaces using ion-exchanged zeolites

Microorganisms are normally found in nature such as in the air, water and soil, ubiquitously. They are significant for human health and ecosystem, and used particularly in the fields of food, environment, agriculture and bioengineering. Beside these beneficial effects of microorganisms, they can also be pathogenic for living systems. These infectious microorganisms affect millions of people every year around the World, and cause considerable amount of disease and death. Some of these microorganisms may be opportunistic pathogens. They are not normally pathogenic for humans; unless the immune system is suppressed or the amount in human microbial flora is increased. Antibiotics are well known drugs developed and used to control clinically important microorganisms. Unfortunately multiple drug resistance has been developed due to the extensive and misuse of antibiotics in long period of time. Therefore, new antibiotics and synthetic drugs are developed. Also to maintain the material hygiene antiseptics and disinfectants are developed; but they don?t satisfy the demand for material hygiene. To cope with contamination of materials, scientists are interested in developing new materials that inhibit the microbial growth on the surface. So far some materials with antibacterial effects have been developed and introduced into the market; however, there has been no attempt to develop antimicrobial material. The aim of this study was to develop novel antimicrobial agents which can be combined with different materials used for manufacturing antimicrobial surfaces. Thus, zeolites which were synthesized with different chemical compositions were ion-exchanged with heavy metals of Ag+, Zn2+and Cu2+, and tested for antimicrobial activity against various microorganisms. Antimicrobial (antifungal, antibacterial and anticandidal) zeolites with Ag+, Zn2+and Cu2+were selected based on in-vitro tests and then combined with different materials, including acrylic paint, dust paint, liquid paint, polypropylene and plaster of paris at different rates to develop antimicrobial surfaces. viThe results in the present study showed that zeolites that have been ion exchanged with silver, copper and zinc solutions and have synthesis composition of 4.64Na2O:Al2O3:3.2SiO2:400 H2O and 2Na2O:Al2O3:1.6SiO2:200H2O have antimicrobial effect against a great range of microorganisms including bacteria, fungi and yeast tested. The data also demonstrated that antimicrobial surfaces with different materials can be developed by combination of 7-15 weight per cent mixture with ion exchanged zeolites