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Incorporation of reactive silver‐tricalcium phosphate nanoparticles into polyamide 6 allows preparation of self‐disinfecting fibers
Author(s) -
Gerber Lukas C.,
Mohn Dirk,
Fortunato Giuseppino,
AstasovFrauenhoffer Monika,
Imfeld Thomas,
Waltimo Tuomas,
Zehnder Matthias,
Stark Wendelin J.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.21779
Subject(s) - materials science , polyamide , silver nanoparticle , streptococcus sanguinis , nanoparticle , extrusion , fiber , polymer , chemical engineering , composite material , nanotechnology , bacteria , biofilm , biology , engineering , genetics
Polymer fibers are used for a wide range of materials in contact with the human body. Since bacterial contamination may cause diseases, it is desirable to provide fibers with antimicrobial properties. This work investigates the ability of silver‐tricalcium phosphate nanoparticles (Ag/TCP) to build a reactive system when incorporated in polyamide fibers. In the presence of bacteria, the TCP carrier particles are biodegraded and trigger the release of silver. For this work, Ag/TCP nanoparticles (1.3 wt% silver) were produced by flame spray synthesis and subsequently processed with polyamide 6 to fibers (125‐μm thick, containing 260 ppm silver) with the aid of extrusion and melt‐spinning for subsequent antibacterial testing. The fibers were contaminated with the clinically relevant strains Escherichia coli or Streptococcus sanguinis , respectively. The reactive fibers demonstrated significantly reduced plate count within 24 h (the number of colony forming units was reduced by 99.999% with E. coli and 99.6% with S. sanguinis compared with pure PA6 reference fibers). These reactive properties of easily integrated antibacterial silver suggest an implementation of intelligent fibers to a wide range of applications. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2011. © 2010 Society of Plastics Engineers