Antimicrobial nanolayer films of chloroxylenol–carboxyethylchitosan–modified silver nanoparticles for enhanced surgical suture performance

Abstract

Antimicrobial surgical suture materials incorporating chloroxylenol-carboxyethylchitosan-modified silver nanoparticles (CECSX-AgNPs) were successfully prepared using the Layer-by-Layer (LbL) deposition technique. Chitosan (CS) was covalently affixed with chloroxylenol as hydrophobic functional groups (PCMX), yielding chloroxylenol-chitosan (CSX) and later hydrophilic acrylic acid onto the CSX skeleton, providing a novel water-soluble antimicrobial agent of chloroxylenol-carboxyethylchitosan (CECSX). 1H NMR confirmed the successful substitution of PCMX and acrylic acid onto CS, with %DSPCMX and %DSAA of 8.0 and 33.0, respectively. CECSX successfully stabilized AgNPs via the chemical reduction method, resulting in CECSX modified AgNPs. The colloidal solution exhibited a yellowish hue, spherical shape, monodispersity with an average particle size of 4.8 ± 2.4 nm, and a zeta potential value of −20.97 ± 0.03 mV. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values for CECSX-AgNPs against E. coli (ATCC25922), S. aureus (ATCC25923), and A. baumanii (ATCC19606) were determined as 25, 12.5, and 1.56 mg/L, respectively. Using the LbL deposition technique, CECSX-AgNPs were successfully deposited onto various suture materials including cotton, polyamide, and polypropylene. Remarkably, CECSX-AgNPs coated surgical sutures exhibited the highest bacterial reduction of 99.99 %. These findings underscore the efficacy of CECSX as a high-performance stabilizing agent for AgNPs production, providing outstanding antibacterial activity on diverse surgical suture materials and promoting the wound healing process.