What is it about?
In this chapter, contamination on material surfaces is discussed from the viewpoint of the relationship between bacterial activity and contaminants. Contamination can be divided into three main groups; Water soluble, oil-based, and solid contamination. However, in any of these cases, contaminants are completely inanimate substances. The bonding of the contaminants with material surfaces is not usually strong so the contaminants can be easily removed. When bacteria are attached to material surfaces, they grow, and then biofilm tends to form on these surfaces. Exopolymeric substances (EPS) in the biofilm are very sticky and make the contaminants stick to material surfaces. Some practical problems following the adhesion are predicted, introduced, and explained in this chapter. Also included is a concrete example that one of the authors investigated in a national project for Japan.
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Why is it important?
Contamination must be closely related to biofilms, even though lots of people don't know the relation yet. Contamination is not equal to biofilms, of course. They are different matters and investigated by lots of researchers so far. But the important thing is that biofilms could make contaminations sticked firmly to materials surfaces, which would lead to industrial or daily problems. Without problems, contaminations would be easily removed!
Perspectives
In this chapter, biofilms are considered matters to fix contaminations on materials surfaces. From the viewpoint, many new industrial processes to clear the surface should be devised in the future.
Professor Hideyuki Kanematsu
National Institute of Technology, Suzuka College
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Contamination and Clean Surface of Materials, January 2015, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-14565-5_18.
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