The ITP-System company specializes in the production of metal colloids. The colloid is a type of suspension in which suspended particles have a size not exceeding 100 nm. Nanometals obtained in the ITP-System laboratory are non-ionic, which means that they are in the form of a chemically pure metal (not an ion, oxide, compound or complex). Obtaining such effect is complicated, which is why many manufacturers try to mask the ionic nature of their products. Why are ionic metals less desirable? The metals in the ionic version have electric charge, which means they have worse antimicrobial activity (they much worse penetrate into bacterial or fungal cells), are more exposed to chemical inactivation (precipitation, complexation) and exposed to uncontrolled reduction eg under UV radiation. This is very visible in the case of silver, the ionic version of which is discolored and inactivated by UV radiation.
Our company specializes mainly in the synthesis of metallic silver, copper and gold nanoparticles. Silver nanoparticles are characterized by excellent antimicrobial properties, mainly directed against bacteria. You can read more about this here. Metallic copper nanoparticles are characterized by excellent antimicrobial properties, however, their antibacterial effectiveness is slightly smaller than silver nanoparticles, while at the same time significantly exceeding its antifungal properties.
This results in a wide field of applications of nanocopper in many industrial products. Nanocopper and nanosilver exhibit non-specific effects, which means that in contrast to traditional biocides that are toxic only to selected groups of microorganisms, nanometals are active against representatives of various species. This also applies to strains that have become resistant to antibiotics.
The small size of copper nanoparticles and their activity at low concentrations allows them to be introduced into many industrial products without drastic interventions in the production process.
More informations you can find in our catalogs and presentations!