In uninsulated or poorly insulated buildings of the past, significant amount of heat used to escape through their external walls by heating and drying them, while providing some "protection" from biologically influenced corrosion. Such a form of "protection", however, was extremely costly for the users, since they had to pay for the energy escaping through the walls.
Over time, increasing requirements for energy efficiency and continued process of insulating the existing residential areas have caused that considerably less heat is lost through the walls. This results in a significant temperature decrease of their external surfaces. From the standpoint of energy efficiency, this is a desirable effect. However, the side effect of more frequent humidifying and the humidity remaining on the walls for much longer, increases the susceptibility of the insulated wall to attacks of micro-organisms. Biological corrosion occurs almost exclusively on shaded façades and walls facing the north. To prevent biological corrosion, various kinds of active biocides are used with the plaster and paint. The effectiveness of simple biocides in common use is limited, and in areas exposed to intense rain, they are washed off the surface quite quickly. Flowing down the façade, they can also degrade greenery around the building.
Next generation ALPOL façade coatings, including ALPOL AT 380÷387 SWING nano-silicone plaster and ALPOL AF 680 SALSA nano-silicone paint are here to aid the contractors and investors in keeping their façades look bright all the time. They are protected from biological corrosion with the innovative multi-level active and passive NanoBioResistant protection formula. The formula comprises three independent protection elements:
• "In can" protection – "in can" biocides ensuring full product protection during storage, application, curing and drying.
Plaster compounds and dispersion paints contain organic binders which – during storage, application and drying – are susceptible to degradation caused by various micro-organisms, including health-threatening fungi and mould. The "In can" biocide protection ensures that wet Alpol product stored in an original container will not be infected with micro-organisms and damaged at the same time, for at least the entire shelf life.
• active protection – encapsulated biocides ensuring balanced, long-term active protection of the coating.
The composition of Alpol plaster and paint products includes advanced encapsulated surface biocides. Active protection agents are trapped in special capsules which protect them from quick washing, and release them gradually over time. It makes it possible to prolong the effective protection to last even more than five years. Another advantage of this protection method is also the significant reduction of the impacts of protective agents on the environment near the building. This is because the amount of protective agents is relatively small at a time.
• passive protection – nano-additives for sealing and providing passive protection of the coating, supporting and adding to the active protection.
An innovative solution in the new generation of Alpol nano-silicone plaster and paints is the introduction of nanoparticles of noble metals for increased microbiological protection. An extended area of influence has been thus achieved with highly limited amount of additives used. Noble metals are commonly known to have properties which can effectively resist the negative effects of various micro-organisms. They do not destroy the micro-organisms, as the active biocides do, but only create unfavourable environment for their growth. The passive protection alone is not strong enough to provide sufficient resistance of the coating. It is just an addition to the active protection which makes it more efficient, thus extending the effective action time and, what is important, has no negative effects on the environment. ALPOL AT 380÷387 SWING nano-silicone plaster and ALPOL AF 680 SALSA nano-silicone paint are the components of ALPOL EKO PLUS thermal insulation systems.
