Title
Characterization and in vitro evaluation of the behaviour of 6-carboxycellulose/Ag(I) in the presence of microorganisms
Authors
LENKA HUSAKOVA IVA URBANOVA VLASTA KULISOVA JAN MUSELIK VACLAV LOCHAR JIRI BRUS JANA VESELA-LANAROVA JARMILA VYTRASOVA ANDREA KALENDOVA PAVEL HAVELKA PETRA MOTKOVA JITKA SRAMKOVA and LUDVIK BENES

Received February 13, 2014
Published Volume 49 Issue 3-4 March-April
Keywords oxidized cellulose, silver salt of oxidized cellulose, degradation, antimicrobial materials, analysis of polymer, silver

Abstract
A new type of an antimicrobial material based on silver salt (chloride) adsorbed onto 6-carboxycellulose (OC/Ag(I)) was characterized using solid-state carbon-13 cross-polarization–magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (13C CP/MAS NMR) spectroscopy, flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and size exclusion chromatography (SEC). In vitro investigations of the behaviour of the material were carried out in buffered nutrient media (pH 7.0 or 5.4) in the presence of several human pathogens, such as Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida albicans, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus epidermidis at 37 °C within a period of one week. The concentration of Ag released into the liquid nutrient media was measured by FAAS. Further, the composition of the resulting liquid and solid phase was characterized by different chromatographic methods, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), FAAS, and inductively coupled plasma orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ICP-oa-TOF-MS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that none of the investigated microorganisms have shown significant degradation potential of OC structure. Only a partial release of Ag was observed, compared to the initial samples, regardless of the presence of the microorganism strain and both investigated pH values. Other noticeable changes observed in the molecular structure of OC were due to the increasing neutralization degree upon cationization by the ions present in the nutrient media.