This book is chiefly intended for those who are using microbicides for
the protection of materials. Another purpose is to inform teachers and
students working on biodeterioration and to show today's technical
standard to those engaged in R&D activities in the microbicide field.
When trying to classify, or to subclassify, material-protecting
microbicides according to their mode of action, e.g. as membrane-active
and electrophilic- active ingredients, it turned out that a clear
assignment was not always possible. For that reason the author has
resorted to chemistry's principle of classifying according to groups of
substances (e.g. alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, acids, esters, amides,
etc.), thus providing the first necessary information about the micro-
bicides' properties. The description of the various groups of substances
includes, whenever possible, an outline of the mode and mechanism of
action of the active ingredients involved. The effective use of
microbicides presupposes knowledge of their character- istics. That is
why the microbicides' chemico-physical properties, their toxicity,
ecotoxicity, effectiveness, and effective spectrum are described in
greater detail. As mentioned before, the characteristics of microbicides
play an important role. They have to be suited to the intended
application to avoid detrimental effects on the properties and the
quality of the material to be protected; also production processes in
which microbicides are used to avoid disturbances by microbial action
must not be disturbed by the presence of those microbicides.
