The effects of silver nitrate as antimicrobial agent in rubber latex films to reduce hospital acquired infections

The influence of silver nitrate as an antimicrobial agent on natural rubber (NR) and nitrile butylene rubber (NBR) latex films were investigated. The NR and NBR latex films were prepared using coagulant dipping with an additional dipping procedure was performed prior to wet gel leaching to deposit the silver nitrate solution onto rubber films. Different concentrations of silver nitrate solution were used in the range of 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10.0, 12.5 and 15.0 mM, respectively. The degree of microbial inhibition efficiency of the antimicrobial NR and NBR on Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) which is a common nosocomial pathogen in combating hospital acquired infections (HAIs) were evaluated. The field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) analyses showed an obvious morphological transition of the silver particle structures were observed as the concentration of silver nitrate increased. On the other hand, the microbial inhibition study using free diffusion and dissipative equations are suggested to determine minimum inhibition concentration (MIC). The antimicrobial study suggested that silver nitrate deposited on the NR and NBR latex films were not influenced by the morphology of silver microstructure which yielded from different concentrations of silver nitrate deposited on latex films surface. Hence, the study effectively demonstrates that antimicrobial inhibition on different antimicrobial latex films results different of MIC values. The tensile strength results of silver nitrate treated NR and NBR latex films also showed no significant reduction on unaged and aged of film’s tensile strength, modulus at 300% (M300) and elongation at break (EB). These results indicated that the deposition of silver ion latex films had no negative effect on film’s integrity of the NR as well as NBR latex films.