Preparation and properties of antibacterial polyvinyl chloride

Plastic products improve people's daily life, but microorganisms attaching to plastic product surfaces present health hazards.

Our study aimed to design a new kind of antibacterial plastic products to promote a higher quality of life.

Antibacterial polyvinyl chloride (PVC) composites were prepared using melt-blending. The antibacterial properties, mechanical properties, and optical transparencies of the PVC composites containing either silver-doped glass or silver-doped zirconium phosphate were studied, and the dispersal of these antibacterial agents throughout the PVC was also observed using scanning electron microscopy.

The results showed that the antibacterial agents were well-dispersed throughout the PVC matrix and that the antibacterial ratio of PVC-G against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus was over 99.0%, which was better than that of PVC-P. The antibacterial agents had little effect on the mechanical properties of the PVC; however, they decreased the optical transparency of PVC, and the transmittance of PVC-P was decreased by 28.3%.

Our results indicate that such kinds of antibacterial PVC composites have great potential in a wide variety of safer plastic applications.