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Study of silver nanoparticle-loaded auxetic polyurethane foams for medical cushioning applications

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Abstract

Patients who are bed-ridden and users of wheelchairs are prone to development of pressure sores at the cushion–skin interface due to stress concentrations, moisture and bacterial infections. The purpose of this work is to develop antibacterial auxetic polyurethane (PU) foams for use in seat cushions and hospital beds. Silver nanoparticles (SNPs) were used in the synthesis of PU foams to induce antibacterial properties. These foams were then converted to negative Poisson’s ratio or auxetic polyurethane (APU) foams to improve the mechanical properties. Two different APU foams were made using compression factors of 2.07 and 2.97. Chemical composition, microstructure, thermal, mechanical and antibacterial properties of SNP-based PU foams before and after conversion to APUs were studied. The study showed that APU foams fabricated using higher compression factor greatly enhanced the antibacterial properties against gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis) and gram negative (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli) bacteria. APU foams made using higher compression ratio also exhibited increase in the compression strength at higher strains (after 20% strain). This study shows that the antibacterial APU foams developed in this work can possibly cause less infection and ensure better stress distribution at the cushion–skin interface.

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Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Government of India, for assistance provided in the form of CSIR Direct-Senior Research Fellowship to V Chaithanya Vinay. File Number: 09/844(0064)/2019-EMR-I.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, VIT, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

    V. Chaithanya Vinay & D. S. Mohan Varma

  2. Centre for Biomaterials Cellular & Molecular Theranostics, VIT, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

    V. Chaithanya Vinay, D. S. Mohan Varma, Ponsubha Sivabalan & Amit Kumar Jaiswal

  3. School of Chemical Engineering, VIT, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

    Mohammed Rehaan Chandan & Sai Swetha

  4. Faculty of Chemistry, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland

    Beata Kaczmarek & A. Sionkowska

Authors
  1. V. Chaithanya Vinay
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  2. D. S. Mohan Varma
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  3. Mohammed Rehaan Chandan
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  4. Ponsubha Sivabalan
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  5. Amit Kumar Jaiswal
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  6. Sai Swetha
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  7. Beata Kaczmarek
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  8. A. Sionkowska
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Contributions

V Chaithanya Vinay, Mohammed Rehaan Chandan and Sai Swetha Auxetic contributed to PU foam synthesis. V Chaithanya Vinay contributed to foam fabrication. V Chaithanya Vinay contributed to all testing. V Chaithanya Vinay and Mohan Varma D S contributed to Poisson’s ratio determination. V Chaithanya Vinay, Ponsubha Sivabalan and Amit Kumar Jaiswal contributed to antibacterial tests. V Chaithanya Vinay, Beata Kaczmareck and A Sionkowska contributed to mechanical testing. V Chaithanya Vinay, Mohan Varma D S, Mohammed Rehaan Chandan and Ponsubha Sivabalan were involved in manuscript preparation. V Chaithanya Vinay and Mohan Varma D S were involved in study concept and design. Mohan Varma D S contributed to study supervision.

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Correspondence to D. S. Mohan Varma.

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Vinay, V.C., Varma, D.S.M., Chandan, M.R. et al. Study of silver nanoparticle-loaded auxetic polyurethane foams for medical cushioning applications. Polym. Bull. 79, 4233–4250 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-021-03705-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-021-03705-x

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