Preparation of antibacterial polyimide films containing silver nanoparticles

Polyimide/silver composite films were successfully prepared by in situ polymerization. A precursor, AgNO₃ was used as the source of the silver nanoparticles. The structure and morphology of resulting films were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Consequently, the silver nanoparticles were well dispersed in polyimide matrix. Meanwhile, thermal properties from thermal gravimetric analyses (TGA) and mechanical properties from tensile test which confirmed composites were kept good performance as compared to pure polyimide. In addition, the antimicrobial activity of polyimide/silver composite films against three different bacteria, B. subtilis, S. aureus, and E. coil, illustrated excellent activity. This composite is potential useful as antimicrobial material with good thermal performance in a wide variety of biomedical and general use applications.