Antimicrobial Performance of Bioinspired PLA Fabricated via One-Step Plasma Etching with Silver and Copper

Nanotechnology has been adopted to mimic a biological system to design artificial nanostructures with properties suitable for advanced applications. In this way, bioinspired bactericidal surfaces with surface nanostructured like insect wings display antimicrobial properties that undergo a physicomechanical mechanism that disrupts the microbial cells, inhibiting their growth and proliferation. Herein, we describe a method to design nanocone patterns on the surface of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) via one step of argon plasma etching in the presence of silver and copper. In this contribution, PLA with nanocone patterns were successfully obtained using 30 and 60 s of plasma etching, mimicking the surface of cicada wings that avoids the attachment of Escherichia coli, which is suitable for self-disinfectant medical devices. However, the plasma etching during 120 s generates a maze-like topographical surface with nanoholes that hampers both the adhesion and proliferation of bacteria on the PLA surface, which are important functional characteristics to fabricate self-disinfecting personal protection equipment for healthcare professionals in hospital environments subject to a wide variety of pathogenic microorganisms that adhere and proliferate on the material surfaces.