Multifunctional, Biocompatible Hybrid Surface Coatings Combining Antibacterial, Hydrophobic and Fluorescent Applications

The hybrid inorganic-organic material concept plays a bold role in multifunctional materials, combining different features on one platform. Once varying properties coexist without cancelling each other on one matrix, a new type of supermaterial can be formed. This concept showed that silver nanoparticles can be embedded together with inorganic and organic surface coatings and silicon quantum dots for symbiotic antibacterial character and UV-excited visible light fluorescent features. Additionally, fluorosilane material can be coupled with this prepolymeric structure to add the hydrophobic feature, showing water contact angles around 120°, providing self-cleaning features. Optical properties of the components and the final material were investigated by UV-Vis spectroscopy and PL analysis. Atomic investigations and structural variations were detected by XPS, SEM, and EDX atomic mapping methods, correcting the atomic entities inside the coating. FT-IR tracked surface features, and statistical analysis of the quantum dots and nanoparticles was conducted. Multifunctional final materials showed antibacterial properties against <i>E. coli</i> and <i>S. aureus</i>, exhibiting self-cleaning features with high surface contact angles and visible light fluorescence due to the silicon quantum dot incorporation into the sol-gel-produced nanocomposite hybrid structure.