Smart surfaces for traditional ceramic tiles

The research objective is the surface functionalization of industrial ceramic materials, mainly for building use, to improve their mechanical (resistance to scratch, wear), chemical-biological (photocatalytic, antibacterial) and also aesthetic properties. This objective will be pursued through the design and preparation of nanostructured powders and followed by application of these powders onto ceramic surfaces by innovative coating technologies that allow to obtain nanostructured materials, and finally their characterization at nano scale.The possibility to obtain ceramic products with photocatalytic, antibacterial and self cleaning effect give an added value to tiles to be used in areas where hygiene is of great importance not only for public use (hospitals, swimming pools, gyms,.....) but also for private use. Even if products with these features [such as 1] are already at the market, rigorous research on correlations among roughness, microstructure and photocatalytic/antibacterial properties is totally absent in the literature [2-5]. In addition, analysis for further development is lacking.This project will offer an opportunity to start collaboration between outstanding research institutes of industrially leading countries in traditional ceramics, to enhance the educational efforts (under-graduate and graduate students, masters and PhD courses), and to start a long-term common research planning. The collaboration between the two research partners is not only desirable for the promising outcomes due to the prestige of the two centers, but also because it adds a cooperation at a scientific and intellectual level between the two countries, which is still undersized. Besides, the complementarities of skills of the involved partners is quite significant, because the expertise of Italian side in traditional ceramics and surface engineering is very well matched with the know-how and abilities on morphological and structural analysis possessed by the Turkish side.