Antibacterial Polyurethane-based Composites: A Comparison between Different Preparation Methods

Many medical devices like catheters, dynamic stent or different probes are meant to be used in the human body for different residence times. Nowadays, introducing an antibacterial agent and prolonging its effect for the entire application period results to be one of the main challanges. For this reason, new devices, able to minimize resilient infections and avoid compatibility problems related to excessive release of foreign substances in the body, are the ultimate goal. Within this research project, we studied and developed materials for the realization and / or implementation of biomedical probes with specific antibacterial functions. Thermoplastic Polyurethane Elastomers (TPUs) based composites, containing various known antibacterial functions, i.e. Silver, Silver Nanoparticles, Titanium Dioxide and Chitosan were prepared. The fillers were introduced by two different strategies: processing techniques (melt compounding) or post-processing (coatings). A direct comparison between materials prepared differently allowed to determine strengths and weaknesses of their final properties and their influence on the physical-mechanical and antibacterial properties of the starting polymeric material.