Alfaisal University

Ali Abdel-Rahman Mohammad Othman

Edreese Alsharaeh

Mohammad Ateeq AlDosari

Khaled Bin Bandar Alsaud

Mohammed Faour Qasem Al-Hindawi

The copolymer of styrene and methylmethacrylate containing reduced graphene oxide/silver nanoparticles (PS-PMMA/RGO/AgNPs) nanocomposite were prepared via in situ bulk polymerization method using two different preparation techniques. In the first approach, a mixture of graphene oxide (GO), styrene (S) and methylmethacrylate monomers (MMA) were polymerized using a bulk polymerization method with a free radical initiator. After the addition silver nitrate (AgNO), the product was reduced via microwave irradiation (MWI) in presence of the reducing agent hydrazine hydrate (HH), to obtain R-(GO-(PS-PMMA))/AgNPs nanocomposite. This nanocomposite was then used to create a material that had antimicrobial properties to be used in medical devices or medical related implants.

Antimicrobial polymer-graphene-silver nanocomposite

A dual approach with slight modification was used to produce a nanocomposite using graphene sheets. The nanocomposite may be used for medical devices such as bone cement, dentures, paper, paint and automotive industries. A novel Microwave irradiation (MWI) was used to obtain R-(GO-(STY-co-MMA)). The results indicate that the nanocomposite obtained using the MWI had a better morphology and dispersion with enhanced thermal stability compared with the nanocomposite prepared without MWI. An average increase of 136% in hardness and 76% in elastic modulus were achieved through the addition of only 2.0 wt % of RGO nanocomposite obtained via the MWI method.

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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Ali Abdel-Rahman Mohammad Othman