Analysis of antimicrobial coatings using XRF
AssigneeAllied Bioscience, Inc.
InventorsParham Asgari, Jie Fang, Gavri Grossman, Maha El-Sayed
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of quantifying an antimicrobial coatings using a handheld XRF analyzer is disclosed. The method provides an estimate of the expected level of antimicrobial efficacy for a thin film comprising silicon and/or titanium by obtaining a 14Si or 22Ti peak intensity using XRF spectroscopy and converting the obtained 14Si or 22Ti peak intensity to the expected level of efficacy using a calibration curve. A properly calibrated handheld XRF analyzer allows a user to assess the viability of antimicrobial coatings in the field, such as in a hospital where various fomites may be coated with silane and/or titanium compositions.
Claims15
A method of estimating an expected level of residual antimicrobial efficacy for an antimicrobial coating comprising silicon and/or titanium, the method comprising:
- obtaining 14Si or 22Ti photon counts from the antimicrobial coating using XRF spectroscopy;
- and
- converting the obtained 14Si or 22Ti photon counts to the expected level of residual antimicrobial efficacy using a calibration curve.
A method of measuring a thickness of an antimicrobial coating comprising silicon and/or titanium on an environmental surface, the method comprising:
- obtaining initial 14Si or 22Ti photon counts from the antimicrobial coating using XRF spectroscopy;
- subjecting the antimicrobial coating to mechanical abrasion;
- obtaining 14Si or 22Ti photon counts from the antimicrobial coating after mechanical abrasion using XRF spectroscopy;
- and
- converting the obtained 14Si or 22Ti photon counts to the thickness of the antimicrobial coating after mechanical abrasion using a calibration curve,
- wherein the mechanical abrasion correlates to handling of the environmental surface.
A method of measuring a weight per unit of surface area of an antimicrobial coating comprising silicon and/or titanium on an environmental surface, the method comprising:
- obtaining initial 14Si or 22Ti photon counts from the antimicrobial coating using XRF spectroscopy;
- subjecting the antimicrobial coating to mechanical abrasion;
- obtaining 14Si or 22Ti photon counts from the antimicrobial coating after mechanical abrasion using XRF spectroscopy;
- and
- converting the obtained 14Si or 22Ti photon counts to the weight per unit of surface area of the antimicrobial coating after mechanical abrasion using a calibration curve,
- wherein the mechanical abrasion correlates to handling of the environmental surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.