Coating of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) with Silver Compounds and Their Antimicrobial Activity in vitro

摘要

Antimicrobial activity of HDPE coated with Ag{sub}7O{sub}8NO{sub}3, Ag{sub}2O, Ag{sub}2CO{sub}3, Ag{sub}2SO{sub}4, etc. and their antimicrobial efficacy was investigated in comparison with commercially available materials containing silver and/or silver compounds. Both cidal and static activities of HDPE treated with silver compounds was investigated in vitro. For this purpose, gram positive organisms, e.g. Staphylococcus aureus, or gram negative organisms, e.g. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, or fungi, e.g. Candida albicans, were used. Samples prepared in this work have shown a strong antimicrobial activity against tested micro-organisms. The strong antimicrobial activity of silver oxysalt coated HDPE was attributed to the presence of higher oxidation states of silver ions e.g. Ag{sup}(2+) and/or Ag{sup}(3+). The results have clearly shown that the coated samples produced in the present work exhibited comparable or even better antimicrobial behaviour than commercially available samples which contained significantly higher levels of silver.