Sharma Pooja, Fialho Luisa, Figueiredo Nuno Miguel, Serra Ricardo, Cavaleiro Albano, Carvalho Sandra
CEMMPRE, Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Coimbra, 3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal.
CFUM-UP, Centro de Física das Universidades do Minho e do Porto, University of Minho, Campus of Azurém, 4800-058 Guimaraes, Portugal.
Antibiotics (Basel). 2023 Jan 18;12(2):207. doi: 10.3390/antibiotics12020207.
Pathogens (disease-causing microorganisms) can survive up to a few days on surfaces and can propagate through surfaces in high percentages, and thus, these surfaces turn into a primary source of pathogen transmission. To prevent and mitigate pathogen transmission, antimicrobial surfaces seem to be a promising option that can be prepared by using resilient, mass-produced polymers with partly embedded antimicrobial nanoparticles (NPs) with controlled size. In the present study, a 6 nm thick Ag nanolayer was sputter deposited on polycarbonate (PC) substrate and then thermally annealed, in a first step at 120 °C (temperature below Tg) for two hours, for promoting NP diffusion and growth, and in a second step at 180 °C (temperature above Tg) for 22 h, for promoting thermal embedding of the NPs into the polymer surface. The variation in the height of NPs on the polymer surface with thermal annealing confirms the embedding of NPs. It was shown that the incorporation of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) had a great impact on the antibacterial capacity, as the Ag NP-embedded polymer surface presented an inhibition effect on the growth of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The tested surface-engineering process of incorporating antimicrobial Ag NPs in a polymer surface is both cost-effective and highly scalable.
病原体（致病微生物）可在物体表面存活长达数天，并能以很高的比例在物体表面传播，因此，这些物体表面成为病原体传播的主要来源。为了预防和减轻病原体传播，抗菌表面似乎是一个很有前景的选择，它可以通过使用具有部分嵌入尺寸可控的抗菌纳米颗粒（NPs）的弹性、大规模生产的聚合物来制备。在本研究中，首先在聚碳酸酯（PC）基板上溅射沉积一层6纳米厚的银纳米层，然后进行热退火，第一步在120°C（低于玻璃化转变温度Tg）下退火两小时，以促进纳米颗粒的扩散和生长，第二步在180°C（高于玻璃化转变温度Tg）下退火22小时，以促进纳米颗粒热嵌入聚合物表面。随着热退火处理，聚合物表面纳米颗粒高度的变化证实了纳米颗粒的嵌入。结果表明银纳米颗粒（Ag NPs）的掺入对抗菌能力有很大影响，因为嵌入银纳米颗粒的聚合物表面对革兰氏阳性菌和革兰氏阴性菌的生长均有抑制作用。在聚合物表面掺入抗菌银纳米颗粒的测试表面工程工艺既经济高效又具有高度可扩展性。
