The ITC is a research centre that caters to the needs and requirements of the Spanish ceramic industry. Over the years, it has organized a university-business cooperation system that has borne fruits. The majority of the companies in the sector are SMEs, which have difficulties to develop technologies that will provide new useful products for society. Therefore, ITC´s objective is to tackle the necessary R&D actions to create those technologies.
Success story
Self-cleaning tiles
ITC has developed ceramic tiles that are able to clean themselves using only sunlight exposure and environmental humidity. Therefore, they have used photocatalytic and hydrophilic materials manufactured with nanoparticles of titanium dioxide. The centre has developed coatings for materials with external uses, such as ceramic products (roof and floor tiles), natural stone, wood and mortars, which are exposed to high levels of contamination. In urban areas, these building materials suffer premature aging due to the organic dirt that adheres to their surfaces, which requires frequent cleaning and repairing to restore their original properties. The use of these new nanostructured materials allows for coatings that, in addition to protecting against bacterial colonization, contribute to the destruction of organic material that is deposited on the surface and that accelerates its deterioration.
