Comparative Evaluation of Different Methods of Inclusion of Silver into Sulfadiazine-Based Polyurethane Urea Composites

This paper approaches two series of composites: one series incorporating silver nanopowder in sulfadiazine-based polyurethane urea through a solution-dispersion method, and another series of composites incorporating silver sulfadiazine in the hard domain of the main chains of the polyurethane. The morphology, structure, and physical properties of these silver composites with different hard segment structures were characterized and compared. It was found that using silver sulfadiazine as a chain extender causes an orderly dispersion of the silver ions along the backbone chain. This leads to an improvement in all properties for these composites, as opposed to composites which incorporated silver nanopowder. Thus, this paper expands on the development of a new and simple method of including silver during the synthesis reaction of the polymer matrix, by chain extension with silver sulfadiazine. Using silver sulfadiazine as a chain extender ensures the repartition of the silver on the molecular backbone chain which allows the silver ions to retain specific properties, unlike other composites which tend to lose silver over time through surface migration. (C) 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers