1. Introduction
Polyurethane foam can generally be defined as an expanded cellular product produced by the interaction of active compounds with hydrogen, water and isocyanates. Our goal was to develop composite materials with antimicrobial properties provided by silver nanoparticles obtained by the radiation-assisted method [1].
2. Materials and Methods
The developed, fully characterized nanoparticles were dispersed in polyurethane foam, which was further characterized in terms of mechanical properties (using the DMA method) and structure (using the SEM-EDX method).
3. Results
Below you can see one of the six models of polyurethane foam developed (Figure 1).
Figure 1.
Polyurethane foam model.
4. Conclusions
The obtained results allowed the proposal of innovative nanoparticle-based polyurethane foams for testing the antimicrobial potential of the materials, as well as for real-life applications.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, M.E.L., R.C.F. and M.S.; methodology, I.F., R.C.F. and M.S.; formal analysis, R.C.F., M.S., M.E.L. and I.F.; investigation, T.F., R.I.M., A.M.B., R.A.G. and N.N.; writing—original draft preparation, R.C.F. and M.S.; writing—review and editing, I.F. and M.E.L.; supervision, M.E.L.; project administration, M.E.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by a grant from the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization, CCCDI—UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2021-0423, contract 612PED/2022, within PNCDI III. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization through Program 1—Development of the national research-development system, Subprogram 1.2—Institutional performance—Projects to finance excellence in RDI, Contract no. 15PFE/2021.
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
The supporting data are available from the corresponding author.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Reference
- Lungulescu, E.-M.; Nicula, N.O.; Setnescu, R.; Ion, I.; Marinescu, V.; Fierascu, R.C.; Stan, M.-S. Polyurethane Foam-Based Nanocomposites/Silver Nanoparticles and Method of Obtaining Them. Patent A/00622, 11 October 2022. [Google Scholar]
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