Author(s)

J.-H. Horng, W.-H. Kao, H.-J. Tsai, Y.-H. Chen, C.-C. Yu

Abstract

Stainless steel is used widely to produce medical and mechanical equipment and items of daily use. However, if one were to improve the antibacterial and antipollution functionalities of stainless steel, it would increase the range of its applications. In this study, we synthesised self-assembled molecular films of an organic silane (octadecyltrichlorosilane) mixed with an antimicrobial agent on stainless steel substrates. We employed the Taguchi method to optimise the synthesis process factors, which included the soaking temperature, drying temperature, soaking time, concentration of self-assembling agent, and concentration of antimicrobial agent. We found that the largest contact angle of the self-assembled films was 116.0°, and their antibacterial activity value was 5.7; the latter is higher than the standard value for materials used for industrial and biomedical applications.

Keywords

self-assembled film, antibacterial effect, contact angle, hydrophobic property