Antimicrobial ultrathin film based on well-defined silver nanoparticles and polylactide

Recently, polylactide (PLA) ultrathin films were developed for biomedical applications as wound dressings and a part of tissue engineering constructs. Owing to many excellent properties such as sufficient flexibility, biodegradability, adhesiveness, and transparency, the films displayed an efficient ability to prevent bacterial penetration into the wound. In this work, silver nanoparticles (SNPs) with the particle size of 2–3 nm were used as an antibacterial agent. The homogeneous ultrathin films of SNP/PLA nanocomposite were prepared with a thickness of 100–700 nm and the concentration of SNPs up to 10 wt%. The films exhibited strong antibacterial activity against S. aureus, E. coli and B. subtilis. Although the addition of a large amount of SNPs into the neat PLA leads to decreases in tensile strength, elongation at fracture and Young's modulus, the SNP/PLA ultrathin films could be potentially used as an antimicrobial wound dressing for tissue regeneration. (paper)