Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Degree

Master of Engineering Science

Program

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Supervisor

Dr. Jin Zhang

Abstract

In this thesis, silver nanoparticles incorporated into polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) were deposited on silicone hydrogel to improve the hydrophilicity of the silicone hydrogel and prevent the growth of bacteria. Two different processes were employed to produce Ag nanoparticles: (1) Process-A is a photochemical reduction; (2) Process-B is laser ablation in liquid. Following that, MAPLE process was employed to deposit the Ag-PVP nanocomposites on the surface of silicone hydrogel. A solid-state pulsed laser (Nd:YAG) with a wavelength of 532 nm at a fluence of 50.4 mJ/cm2 was used in the MAPLE system to deposit Ag-PVP nanocomposite coating. Our results indicate that adsorption of bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein on silicone hydrogels with Ag-PVP nanocomposite coating produced by Process-A and Process-B followed by MAPLE were found to be 14.11 μg/cm2 and 13.73 μg/cm2, respectively. In addition, the relative viability of bacterial colonies on Ag-PVP coated silicone hydrogel declines to 44% and 26% in Process-A and Process-B followed by MAPLE respectively, after 6 hours. The value of Young’s Modulus of bare silicone hydrogel, Ag-PVP coated silicone hydrogel prepared by process-A and process-B followed by 2 hours of MAPLE deposition were found to be 0.57 MPa, 0.62 MPa and 0.66 MPa respectively. The value of toughness of bare silicone hydrogel, Ag-PVP coated silicone hydrogel prepared by process-A and process-B followed by 2 hours of MAPLE deposition were found to be 15.14 MJ/m3, 21.54 MJ/m3 and 22.01MJ/m3 respectively, under uniaxial mechanical test.

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