Plastic Industry´s contribution to the fight against COVID-19 pandemic has been sustained and substantial. From plastic medical supplies and devices, food packaging and personal protective equipments to plastic surface modifications, the continuous research and development of new products is increasing. Antimicrobial additives compatible with Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), Polypropylene (PP), Polystyrene (PS), Polyethylene (PE/LDPE), Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and Polycarbonate (PC) have been developed. These additives consist on Silver ion (Ag+) as antimicrobial agent.
The antimicrobial technologies inhibit the growth of bacteria and mildew on the surface of the product. Ag+ disrupts bacteria’s metabolism by preventing it from converting nutrients into energy; therefore, bacterial survival, reproduction and colonization are inhibited.
The threshold established for potential pathogen on surfaces is 100 CFU/100 cm2 (CFU: Colony Forming Units) and 250 CFU/100 cm2 for total microbial colony. Most hospital-approved disinfectants reduced quickly count. However, bacteria rebound also quickly to > 250 CFU/100 cm2. Additive based on silver phosphate acts as an active ingredient on the plastic surface that keeps values below the corresponding thresholds.
Antiviral additives have been developed by automotive interior company (patent pending); It is claimed that can kill 99.9999% of SARS-COV-2 virus on material surface in 60 min. PVC, TPV (thermoplastic vulcanisate) and TPO (thermoplastic polyolefins) are included among the materials tested.
Recently, enhancement of antiviral effect of plastic film against SARS-CoV-2 has been published1; nanomaterials combined with nanopatterns have been used. It is claimed that these films are able to deactivate SARSCoV-2 by up to 2 orders of magnitude within the first hour compared to untreated films. AgNPs and CuNPs (NPs = nanoparticles), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and polyvinyl acetate (PVA) are used. Industrial scalability is visualized integrating ultrasonic atomization spray coating and thermal nanoimprinting lithography.
Other technologies are continuously being developed.
1.- Y. Zhou, N. F. Fletcher, N. Zhang, J. Hassan, M. D. Gilchrist, Nano Lett. (2021), 21, 10149−10156
