Manufacturing of antibacterial additives by nano-coating fragmentation

This study demonstrates the potential of a novel technique called nano-coating fragmentation to produce silver nanocomposites with antibacterial properties. This process starts from the production of an antibacterial additive without the separate production of silver nanoparticles. The additive was produced by depositing a silver nanofilm on polypropylene (PP) pellets by a physical vapor deposition sputtering process. Different set of sputtering parameters were used and different percentage of Ag were deposited on pellets. Afterwards, PP coated pellets were inserted in an injection molding machine to produce, in a single step, the nanocomposite by using shear forces. In facts, nanoparticles originate by the fragmentation of nano-coatings. The homogenously distributed silver particles were observed by microscope onto the nanocomposite surfaces. Thermal and mechanical properties of the nanocomposites were measured as well. The presence of dispersed nanofiller was confirmed by DSC analysis of the molded samples.