Composition-Dependent Physicochemical and Bactericidal Properties of Dual Cu-TiO₂ Nanoparticles Incorporated in Polypropylene

Polymer-based appliances are vulnerable to bacterial infections and pose a significant concern in biomedical field. Potential sources of infections have been found to be two categories of strain, namely Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli), necessitating a comprehensive exploration of innovative materials and strategies to mitigate this issue. Accordingly, this work targeted to determine the effect of 1% and 7% Cu-TiO₂ on the antibacterial activity of PP composite against S. aureus and E. coli. In this work, oval-shaped Cu-TiO₂ were fabricated by a hydrothermal method and then incorporated into the PP by internal mixing. Subsequently, XRD, TEM, FESEM, and EDS were used to characterize the Cu-TiO₂-PP composite. The structural properties of PP composite were greatly altered with dispersion of Cu-TiO₂. Antibacterial tests demonstrated that the bactericidal efficiency of Cu-TiO₂-PP composite on microorganisms greatly improved with metal-ionic systems compared with pure PP. This work throws some new insight in addressing catheter-related blood-stream infection.