Dipartimento di Chimica
Laboratorio di Processi e Impianti chimici per la Chimica Industriale

Test Report N. GF/4.2015
GRANITI FIANDRE S.p.A.
Via Radici Nord, 11242014 Castellarano (RE)
ItaliaTest: self-cleaning test performed by means of contact angle
measurement on Calacatta ActiveTM 300x150 cm
inaccordance with ISO 27448:2008.
ISO 27448-1:2008 “Fine ceramics (advanced ceramics,advanced technical ceramics – test method for selfcleaning performance of semiconducting photocatalytic
materials”
Milano 24/09/2015
Date of receipt
Analysis start date
Analysis end date

10/09/2015
21/09/2015
24/09/2015

Material
ProductSample
Test information

Ceramic Materials
Ceramic slabs in porcelain gresCalacatta Active 300x150 cm• Test to assess and quantify the self-cleaning
property in accordance with ISO 10678:2010.
• Tested sample: collected and cut in a 3.5x3.5
cm sample from an original slab, intact in all its
parts, randomly chosen from a production
batch.
• Pre-treatment methods: in accordance withISO 27448-1:2008.
• Light source: UV-A Jelosil 500, intensity 3.0mW/cm2.
• Exposure time: 6 h.
• Initial concentration: solution 0.5 vol.% of oleic
acid in n-heptane.
• Homogeneous layer of oleic acid resulted to be
2.0±0.2 mg (Gibertini Elettronica precisionbalance).

Prof. Claudia L. Bianchi
Tel 0250314253 –claudia.bianchi@unimi.it

•

•
•

Analytical method: contact angle instrument
equipped with high-resolution TV camera(Kruss).
Dark tests for comparison.
Reproducibility:
themeasurement
wasrepeated on no. 5 samples, cut and randomly
chosen from # 5 different slabs.

Both experimental contact angle data and the relative mathematicalelaborations, in accordance with ISO 27448-1:2010, are reported in Table1.

Tab.1
Calacatta ActiveTM

UV irradiation
time
(h)

02
4624
28
48
72
7476

5 (five) contact angle
measurements at each time(°)
1
2
3
4
558,658,040,639,432,017,323,1
17,220,935,663,560,851,437,929,225,529,417,943,435,7

47,751,353,656,4
27,5
20,8
20,431,232,537,139,739,432,653,023,921,015,720,832,622,042,735,555,045,6
28,624,121,729,029,930,9(°)

(°)

(°)

(%)

50,44
49,00
46,64
46,46
28,24
21,74
22,06
23,22
31,86
32,26

-

48,69
47,37
40,45
32,15
24,01
22,34
25,71
29,11

3,94
2,99
26,14
39,86
15,26
3,48
20,83
17,55

1,92
1,42
10,57
12,81
3,66
0,78
5,36
5,11

θn = mean of the contact angle value measured on 5 (five) measurements made on 5 points chosenrandomly on the surface of the materials = standard deviation= mean of the values of θn obtained at three consecutive time

A summary of the obtained data is shown in Table 2:
Tab.2
SampleCalacatta
ActiveTM
Calacatta
ActiveTM

UV

Original slab
contact
angle

Contactangle
t0

Contactangle
t48

Contact
angle
t76

Yes

28.8°

50.44°

21.74°

32.26°No (dark)

28.8°

50.90°

50.86°

53.50°

Prof. Claudia L. Bianchi
Tel 0250314253 –claudia.bianchi@unimi.it

Conclusions
Calacatta ActiveTM 300x150 cm is a material with self-cleaning
properties in accordance with ISO 27448-1:2008.
With regard to the data obtained during the test, after only 28 hours, thevalue of the contact angle drops of 28,70 degrees, to return then to thevalue, which originally had the material before the test. This fact proves thatthe oleic acid, applied onto its surface, had undergone photodegradation due
to the photocatalytic efficiency of the Calacatta ActiveTM slabs. The control(dark test) sample shows a contact value, which remains unchanged fromthe start to the end of the test.

Il Responsabile ScientificoProf. Claudia Letizia Bianchi

Prof. Claudia L. Bianchi
Tel 0250314253 –claudia.bianchi@unimi.it