Integrated manufacturing of REciclable multi-material COmposites for the TRANSport sector
Advanced Surface?Engineered Water?Based Paints for Antibacterial and Mechanical Resilience in Harsh Environments
This article presents a sustainable strategy for enhancing water?based paints by incorporating fly ash?derived hollow ceramic microcore@TiO2 microadditives. The optimized 4?wt% formulation improves hardness, creep resistance, and antibacterial efficacy under visible light up to 90%. Detailed surface, mechanical, and antibacterial analyses reveal a dual chemical–physical mechanism, highlighting a promising pathway for eco?friendly, high?performance coatings.Water?based paints commonly used on exterior surfaces, such as those in marine environments, swimming pools, transportation, railings, and construction, often exhibit poor mechanical strength and antimicrobial efficacy. This study presents an innovative approach to enhance these properties by incorporating hollow ceramic microcore (HCM) microadditives derived from fly ash waste. A core?shell fabrication technique is employed to produce HCM@TiO2 microadditives, where the mullite (Al6Si2O13) based HCM core is encapsulated with a shell of anatase?phase titania (TiO2). Adding 4?wt% of these microadditives to the water?based paint significantly improve its properties, including a 90% reduction in bacterial growth and notable enhancements in creep resistance and hardness. Mechanical testing demonstrate a 9.14% increase in hardness (from 0.288 to 0.317?GPa) and a 22.67% increase in reduced modulus (from 6.589 to 8.516?GPa), along with improved creep resistance. Surface characterization show that the areal roughness (Sa) increased from 0.198 to 0.275??m, promoting stronger interlocking, while gloss values decrease moderately from 71.1 to 60.0?GU, indicating a trade?off between durability and optical finish. These findings highlight the dual functionality of HCM@TiO2 as a sustainable additive that simultaneously improves antibacterial efficacy and mechanical resilience, demonstrating a promising pathway for waste valorization and next?generation eco?friendly coatings.
» Author: Jaya Verma, Jiqiang Wang, Xin Yang, Yanquan Geng, Yongda Yan, Gajendra Gaur, Andrei Shishkin
» Publication Date: 07/11/2025
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº 768737
