Study of Antimicrobial Properties of Preparations Based on Maleic-Acid Copolymers Containing Silver Nanoparticles and Phenolic Residues

In this work, water-soluble polymer composites containing two antimicrobial components, silver nanoparticles and phenol ligands, are obtained. The maleic-acid groups of the used matrix, a copolymer of maleic acid with ethylene, contributed to the production of noncovalent polymer conjugates of p-aminophenol. In addition, they were easily transformed thermally into reactive residues of maleic anhydride, which allowed the synthesis of covalent polymer complexes of p-aminophenol. Silver nanoparticles were obtained via a reduction of the corresponding metal salt with NaBH 4 in the presence of phenol-polymer conjugates. The resulting colloidal solutions of preparations were active against a number of opportunistic microorganisms. The minimum inhibitory concentrations were 32 and 64 μg/mL for complex drugs against Escherichia coli , 8 and 16 μg/mL against Pseudomonas aeruginosa , and 4 and 8 μg/mL against Candida albicans for nanosilver-containing noncovalent and covalent polymer complexes of p -aminophenol, respectively. A pronounced synergistic effect of antibacterial components in the used conjugates is revealed in relation to the specified strains of microorganisms; the fractional inhibitory concentration indexes for the obtained composites were less than 0.5.