Development and Optimization of Medical-Grade Multi-Functional Polyamide 12-Cuprous Oxide Nanocomposites with Superior Mechanical and Antibacterial Properties for Cost-Effective 3D Printing

Nectarios Vidakis; Markos Petousis; Nikolaos Michailidis; Sotirios Grammatikos; Constantine N David; Nikolaos Mountakis; Apostolos Argyros; Orsa Boura

doi:10.3390/nano12030534

Development and Optimization of Medical-Grade Multi-Functional Polyamide 12-Cuprous Oxide Nanocomposites with Superior Mechanical and Antibacterial Properties for Cost-Effective 3D Printing

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Feb 4;12(3):534. doi: 10.3390/nano12030534.

Authors

Nectarios Vidakis¹, Markos Petousis¹, Nikolaos Michailidis^{2

3}, Sotirios Grammatikos⁴, Constantine N David⁵, Nikolaos Mountakis¹, Apostolos Argyros^{2

3}, Orsa Boura⁴

Affiliations

¹ Mechanical Engineering Department, Hellenic Mediterranean University, 71004 Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
² Physical Metallurgy Laboratory, Mechanical Engineering Department, School of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece.
³ Centre for Research & Development of Advanced Materials (CERDAM), Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation, Balkan Center, 57001 Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece.
⁴ Group of Sustainable Composites, Department of Manufacturing and Civil Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2815 Gjøvik, Norway.
⁵ Manufacturing Technology & Production Systems Laboratory, School of Engineering, International Hellenic University (Serres Campus), 62124 Serres, Macedonia, Greece.

Abstract

In the current study, nanocomposites of medical-grade polyamide 12 (PA12) with incorporated copper (I) oxide (cuprous oxide-Cu₂O) were prepared and fully characterized for their mechanical, thermal, and antibacterial properties. The investigation was performed on specimens manufactured by fused filament fabrication (FFF) and aimed to produce multi-purpose geometrically complex nanocomposite materials that could be employed in medical, food, and other sectors. Tensile, flexural, impact and Vickers microhardness measurements were conducted on the 3D-printed specimens. The fractographic inspection was conducted utilizing scanning electron microscopy (SEM), to determine the fracture mechanism and qualitatively evaluate the process. Moreover, the thermal properties were determined by thermogravimetric analysis (D/TGA). Finally, their antibacterial performance was assessed through a screening method of well agar diffusion. The results demonstrate that the overall optimum performance was achieved for the nanocomposites with 2.0 wt.% loading, while 0.5 wt.% to 4.0 wt.% loading was concluded to have discrete improvements of either the mechanical, the thermal, or the antibacterial performance.

Keywords: biocidal efficiency; cuprous oxide (Cu2O); fused filament fabrication (FFF); mechanical properties; nanocomposites; polyamide 12 (PA12); three-dimensional (3D) printing.