Comparative Experimental Investigation of Biodegradable Antimicrobial Polymer-Based Composite Produced by 3D Printing Technology Enriched with Metallic Particles

Due to the prevailing existence of the COVID-19 pandemic, novel and practical strategies to combat pathogens are on the rise worldwide. It is estimated that, globally, around 10% of hospital patients will acquire at least one healthcare-associated infection. One of the novel strategies that has been developed is incorporating metallic particles into polymeric materials that neutralize infectious agents. Considering the broad-spectrum antimicrobial potency of some materials, the incorporation of metallic particles into the intended hybrid composite material could inherently add significant value to the final product. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate an antimicrobial polymeric PLA-based composite material enhanced with different microparticles (copper, aluminum, stainless steel, and bronze) for the antimicrobial properties of the hybrid composite. The prepared composite material samples produced with fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printing technology were tested for different time intervals to establish their antimicrobial activities. The results presented here depict that the sample prepared with 90% copper and 10% PLA showed the best antibacterial activity (99.5%) after just 20 min against different types of bacteria as compared to the other samples. The metallic-enriched PLA-based antibacterial sheets were remarkably effective against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli; therefore, they can be a good candidate for future biomedical, food packaging, tissue engineering, prosthetic material, textile industry, and other science and technology applications. Thus, antimicrobial sheets made from PLA mixed with metallic particles offer sustainable solutions for a wide range of applications where touching surfaces is a big concern.