Filtern
Dokumenttyp
- Zeitschriftenartikel (1)
- Vortrag (1)
Sprache
- Englisch (2) (entfernen)
Schlagworte
- Biodeterioration (2) (entfernen)
Eingeladener Vortrag
- nein (1)
The biodeterioration of water-based manufactured formulations, such as polymer dispersions, is a major problem for the producing companies and the users of such products. Industrial preservatives, also known as biocides, are therefore used to protect these and similar products from the effects of microorganisms, predominantly bacteria and yeasts. In the absence of internationally recognised standard methods for determining the resistance of polymer dispersions to microbial growth and the efficacy of biocides used in them, protocols for testing other products, e.g., paints, have been adapted, and other methods produced by manufacturing companies, test laboratories, and academic institutions have been used. Often these do not take into account the specific nature of the materials being tested, the types of organism commonly causing contamination, and the conditions that the polymer dispersions will be exposed to during manufacture, storage, and use. By conducting a series of round-robin, collaborative tests, the member organisations of the International Biodeterioration Research Group Polymer Dispersion Working Group have identified the bacteria that commonly infect polymer dispersions, defined the main parameters necessary for a standard method of test, and developed a protocol that is robust, repeatable, and reproducible. The recommended test involves three repeat inoculations of the material with a previously determined mix of seven Gram-negative bacteria and evaluation of living cells by a simple plating technique. The work reported here, carried out by nine participating laboratories, is a final statistical validation and suggests that the method is eminently suitable as a standard test method.
Materials are subject to environmental constraints that include biological, chemical and physical factors. To gain confidence about durability and long-term performance of any material, environmental resistance testing procedures have to be amended with modern simulation procedures that include biological components. In fact, any environmentally exposed surface at temperatures lower than 121 °C will be home to microbial growth, even at high salt concentrations, extreme pH, environmental pollution, low water potential, and intense irradiation – everywhere where water is liquid and available. As a consequence, complex microbial ecosystems called biofilms are self-sufficient and found on almost all solid-air-water interfaces. Obviously, environmental changes perturb biofilm development but over a number of seasons, these changes result in relatively stable microbial communities peculiar and adapted to a particular niche and material. Certain microbial settlers are indicative of, and in a real sense mark, a particular biofilm and can, thus, be considered as “reference organisms”. Characteristic reference organisms’ peculiar to specific material-inhabiting communities can be isolated, identified, characterised and used in standard test procedures as well as research into materials science (materials improvement). In this presentation classical microbiological, genetic and molecular methods for studying reference organisms and their roles in materials deterioration will be presented. We will present a set of different reference organisms that are currently in focus of our research and testing development.