Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2015, 16(1), 2099-2116; doi:10.3390/ijms16012099
Antimicrobial Polymers with Metal Nanoparticles
Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Biotecnología, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Chile, Beauchef 850, Santiago 8320000, Chile
Academic Editor: Antonella Piozzi
Received: 24 November 2014 / Accepted: 9 January 2015 / Published: 19 January 2015
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antimicrobial Polymers)
Abstract
Metals, such as copper and silver, can be extremely toxic to bacteria at exceptionally low concentrations. Because of this biocidal activity, metals have been widely used as antimicrobial agents in a multitude of applications related with agriculture, healthcare, and the industry in general. Unlike other antimicrobial agents, metals are stable under conditions currently found in the industry allowing their use as additives. Today these metal based additives are found as: particles, ions absorbed/exchanged in different carriers, salts, hybrid structures, etc. One recent route to further extend the antimicrobial applications of these metals is by their incorporation as nanoparticles into polymer matrices. These polymer/metal nanocomposites can be prepared by several routes such as in situ synthesis of the nanoparticle within a hydrogel or direct addition of the metal nanofiller into a thermoplastic matrix. The objective of the present review is to show examples of polymer/metal composites designed to have antimicrobial activities, with a special focus on copper and silver metal nanoparticles and their mechanisms. View Full-TextKeywords:
antimicrobial metals; polymer nanocomposites; copper; silver
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).
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Palza, H. Antimicrobial Polymers with Metal Nanoparticles. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2015, 16, 2099-2116.
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