Composite material based on hybrid micro-sized Ag-ZnO filler for antibacterial applications

Abstract

Microwave hydrothermal synthesis is a fast, simple, and reproducible method which does not require necessarily any template, catalyst, or surfactant and can control the morphology of Ag-ZnO crystals from simple to complex. Here, it was used for preparation of micro-sized hybrid filler. Zinc acetate and silver nitrate were used as starting material for microwave-assisted synthesis and hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) was chosen as a precipitation and reduction agent. Ag-ZnO structures were obtained in a good yield at a relatively low temperature within several minutes. This hybrid Ag-ZnO filler was mixed up in PVC matrix. A series of materials with different mass concentration of filler was prepared ranging up to 5 wt%. The antibacterial activity of the final product was tested against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli according to ISO 22196 standard. Relation of content of filler and antibacterial activity against representative strains of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria was investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) method and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used for characterization of composition, structure and morphology of Ag-ZnO microparticles.