Technological Institute of the Philippines

Department of Chemical Engineering

Principles of Biochemical Engineering
Proposal Title: Development of Self-Cleaning Coating for the Outdoor Application for Suppression of
Transmission of COVID-19
Proponent(s): Maria Olive A. De Jose
RATIONALE
The country is now under an epidemic on Coronavirus (Covid-19), where in every other day the number of
cases increases. The number of death cases are higher compared to the number of recovery despite of
implementation of community quarantine and no mass testing. Although there is now what we called
“physical distancing” contact to objects cannot be avoided. This project aims to develop self- cleaning
coating to disintegrate viruses in outdoor application surfaces.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
It is known that coronavirus has the potential to spread through contaminated surfaces, the surfaces with
high contamination is important to be able to sterilize, such as doorknobs, elevator buttons or handrails in
public areas in general. Cleaning and disinfecting fomites can effectively remove/kill pathogens on
surfaces, but studies have shown that more than one-half the time, surfaces are not adequately cleaned
and may be recontaminated within minutes.( Tamimi et al., 2014) Additional data endemic human
coronavirus can persist on inanimate surfaces like metals, glass and plastics for up to 9 days. (Kampf et al.,
2020). However, the current disinfectants are mainly based on chemicals such as poisonous sodium
hypochlorite (bleach) or alcohol, both of which provide only a temporary measure until the next exposure to
the virus.
One alternative is to create a self-cleaning coating based on nanomaterial. That is toxic for viruses or
bacteria but completely human friendly. Self-cleaning is one of the most attractive properties of a surface,
which can repel all the contaminants (dirt, pollutants, microbes) through the action of rolling-off water drops.
Self-cleaning characteristic can be introduced into any kind of surface by controlling its wettability (Liu and
Jiang 2012). One agent used is TiO2, Studies revealed that the self-cleaning effect of TiO2 could be
improved by water flow or rainfall. Hence, one of the best applications of self-cleaning TiO2 surfaces is the
construction materials because these could be exposed to abundant sunlight and rainfall. (Somasundaram
et al., 2019)
OBJECTIVES
The objective of the study is to establish self-cleaning coating to minimize direct exposure to the virus
relating to COVID-19. Specifically, we will seek the following objectives:
1. To develop a self-cleaning coating that is toxic to viruses but completely human and environmental
friendly.
 2. To determine the differences between hydrophilic and hydrophobic self-cleaning coating.

METHODOLOGY
Titanium dioxide (TiO2 is a well-known coating for hydrophilic self-cleaning surfaces due to its favorable
physical and chemical properties. And it is non- toxic used in paints, medicine, paper, sunscreens, and
toothpaste. The strong oxidation power and superhydrophilic properties of titanium dioxide make it a good
material to be used as a self-cleaning coating especially for outdoor purposes.

Figure 1: The principle of hydrophilic self-cleaning coating. UV illumination makes the electrons of the TiO2
-surface to break water molecules into hydroxyl radicals. (2) These radicals react with organic dirt, breaking
them into smaller particles (3). The small particles are easily washed away by water (4)

TiO2 coatings appear to have self-cleaning properties: When exposed to sunlight, TiO2 reacts with water to
generate hydroxyl radicals, which break down organic molecules and microbes adsorbed on the surface.
When it rains, water spreads out on the hydrophilic TiO2 coating and washes away dust and dirt. TiO 2 can
both attract and repel water. When TiO2 surfaces in air are irradiated with ultraviolet (UV) light, they
become hydrophilic, but they slowly return to a hydrophobic state in the dark. (Wang et al., 1997).

REFERENCES
R. Saravanan et al. (eds.), Emerging Nanostructured Materials for Energy and Environmental Science,
Environmental Chemistry for a Sustainable World 23, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04474-9_11
M. Barletta et al., (2014), Self-cleaning and self-sanitizing coatings on plastic fabrics: Design, manufacture
and performance, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfb.2014.05.012
A. Tamimi et al., (2014), Long-term efficacy of a self-disinfecting coating in an intensive care unit,
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2014.07.005
A. Syafiq et al., (2018), Superhydrophilic Smart Coating for Self-Cleaning Application on Glass Substrate,
https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/6412601
J. Y Park(2018).How titanium dioxide cleans itself. Science, 361(6404), 753–
753. doi:10.1126/science.aau6016