Particulate soils adherence and surface cleanability: influence of biomacromolecules at interfaces and of substrate hydrophobicity

Cleaning of particulate soils is an important issue in food and pharmaceutical production. Understanding the adherence of these soils is a fundamental requirement for improving surfaces cleanability. The combination of particles and macromolecules substances appears in many processes. Adsorbed compounds from these mixtures may influence interactions at interfaces and thus fouling and cleaning.
This thesis deals with a deeper understanding of the physico-chemical mechanisms affecting soiling and cleanability of open substrates in the presence of biomacromolecules (dextran, bovine serum albumin – BSA, beta-lactoglobulin – β-LGB). Model substrates were chosen according to their hydrophobicity. The influence of macromolecules was examined by introducing them in the quartz suspension taken as a model of hard hydrophilic soil used for soiling, or by conditioning the substrate prior to soiling. The substrates were pretreated with ethanol (-Eth.), piranha or UV-Ozone (-UVO); soiled by spraying the quartz suspensions, then dried, before cleaning assessment. The removal of the soiling particles was evaluated after exposure to water in a radial flow chamber (RFC). Auxiliary characterizations were surface tension and contact angle measurements, surface analysis of the substrate by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
The interpretation of XPS data allowed the complexity due to the ubiquitous presence of organic contaminants to be coped with, and the surface composition to be expressed in terms of both the amount of adlayer and the mass concentration of adlayer constituents. The contact of substrates with proteins led to their adsorption, which dominated the composition of the organic layer with respect to contaminants initially present, and was not markedly desorbed upon rinsing. Dextran was easily removed in presence of water, independently on the substrate nature.
Surface hydrophobicity was shown to influence the morphology of the aggregates resulting from drying. The rounder aggregates formed on polystyrene when soiling was performed with suspension in pure water are more sensitive to wall shear stress than flatter ones formed on more hydrophilic substrate. This is the result of the competing processes of droplet rolling and coalescing, on the one hand, and droplet spreading, on the other hand. It affects the shape and compactness of the adhering aggregates, the efficiency of shear forces upon cleaning and finally, the adherence of soiling particles.
The presence of proteins (either native or denatured) at the interface improved strongly the cleanability of more hydrophilic substrate (glass, StSteel-UVO). This is attributed to the lower surface tension. The dependence of cleanability on capillary forces, and in particular on the liquid surface tension, is predominant as compared with its dependence on the size and shape of the soiling aggregates, which influence the efficiency of shear forces exerted by the flowing water upon cleaning. The cleanability of less hydrophilic substrate (stainless steel only pre-cleaned with ethanol) did not change markedly in the presence of proteins; this may be due to a more complex interaction between surface tension and contact angle, on one hand, and a more complex interaction between proteins and contaminants, on the other hand. The presence of dextran did not affect the cleanability, as neither the liquid surface tension nor the contact angle was appreciably affected.