Design of a Nanostructured Active Surface against Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative Bacteria through Plasma Activation and in Situ Silver Reduction

Nowadays there is an increasing focus for avoiding bacterial colonization in a medical device after implantation. Bacterial infection associated with prosthesis implantation, or even along the lifetime of the implanted prosthesis, entails a serious problem, emphasized with immunocompromised patients. This work shows a new methodology to create highly hydrophobic micro-/nanostructured silver antibacterial surfaces against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, using low-pressure plasma. PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) samples, typically used in tracheal prosthesis, are coated with PFM (pentafluorophenyl methacrylate) through PECVD (plasma enhance chemical vapor deposition) technique. PFM thin films offer highly reactive ester groups that allow them to react preferably with amine bearing molecules, such as amine sugar, to create controlled reductive surfaces capable of reducing silver salts to a nanostructured metallic silver. This micro-/nanostructured silver coating shows interesting antibacterial properties combined with an antifouling behavior causing a reduction of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria viability. In addition, these types of silver-coated samples show no apparent cytotoxicity against COS-7 cells.