Novel LDPE/vermiculite/ciclopiroxolamine hybrid nanocomposites: Structure, surface properties, and antifungal activity

0544969 - ÚGN 2022 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Holešová, S. - Čech Barabaszová, K. - Hundáková, M. - Plevová, Eva - Kalendová, A.
Novel LDPE/vermiculite/ciclopiroxolamine hybrid nanocomposites: Structure, surface properties, and antifungal activity.
Journal of Applied Polymer Science. Roč. 138, č. 16 (2021), č. článku 50232. ISSN 0021-8995. E-ISSN 1097-4628
Institutional support: RVO:68145535
Keywords : nanocomposites * vermiculite * ciclopiroxolamine * polyethylene
OECD category: Analytical chemistry
Impact factor: 3.057, year: 2021
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/app.50232

The increasing number of indwelling medical materials and devices are connected with infections caused by yeast, especially Candida albicans. This pathogen produces undesirable biofilms on synthetic materials. Since antimicrobial polymer nanocomposites present one of the promising possibility of reduction of such biofilms, therefore this study is focused on developing nanocomposite based on low density polyethylene (LDPE) with clay mineral vermiculite as an active carrier for antifungal compound. The set of LDPE/vermiculite nanocomposite with increasing amount of antifungal nanofiller was prepared. As antifungal agent was selected generally used active substance ciclopiroxolamine. The structure of all prepared samples was studied by X-ray diffraction analysis and Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy. Further thermal properties of polyethylene/clay nanocomposites were investigated by thermogravimetric analysis and the surface properties were evaluated by light optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. From mentioned characteristics, we conclude that presence of nanofiller in LDPE primarily causes shift of thermal degradation to higher temperatures and increasing of microhardness. All prepared LDPE nanocomposites possess an excellent and prolonged antifungal activity against Candida albicans.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0321759