Potential of an antibacterial ultraviolet-irradiated nylon film

✍ Scribed by Adrienne E. H. Shearer; James S. Paik; Dallas G. Hoover; Sharon L. Haynie; Michael J. Kelley

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 198 KB
• Volume: 67
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0006-3592
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0290(20000120)67:2<141::aid-bit3>3.0.co;2-#

✦ Synopsis

The antibacterial effectiveness of an ultravioletirradiated nylon 6,6 film was investigated for potential use as a food-packaging material to reduce the surface microbial contamination of foods. The film-surface analyses showed that UV irradiation induced conversion of surface amide groups to amines. Irradiation also increased the dimensional scale of the film surface topography (depth of valleys) approximately 5-fold on the scale of nanometers. The irradiated nylon demonstrated antagonistic activity against Staphylococcus aureus 25923 and Escherichia coli TV1058 with 4.5 and 6 log reductions, respectively, of an initial population of 10 6 cfu mL -1 . The irradiated nylon was ineffective against Pseudomonas fluorescens 13525 and Enterococcus faecalis 19433 under similar conditions. The film demon- strated increased antimicrobial activity against S. aureus 25923 with increasing temperatures up to 45°C, the highest temperature tested. Protein and salt inhibited the antibacterial nature of the irradiated film. Amines in solution (4.31 × 10 -8 M; the calculated equivalent of amines on the film) killed at least 1 × 10 4 cfu mL -1 E. coli TV1058, and 4.31 × 10 -7 M amines killed up to 1 × 10 7 cfu mL -1 E. coli TV1058. The amines in solution required similar ex- posure time to the bacteria for population reduction as was observed with the irradiated film.