Carbon nanomaterials-based polymer-matrix nanocomposites for antimicrobial applications: A review

Carbon Nanomaterials present many exceptional properties, including antimicrobial ones. The transfer of the latter through their incorporation into materials has generated a growing interest with a significant increase in number of publications since 2011. The use of polymeric matrices presents many advantages, because polymers are efficient nanoparticles holders and also exhibit intrinsic antimicrobial properties in some cases. The state of the art of fabrication methods and presumed antimicrobial mechanism is presented, focusing on antibacterial activity as the latter is, by far, the most discussed in the literature. Even if many examples of such nanocomposites are available, most of them correspond to carbon nanomaterials incorporated in the volume, while only the surface is of interest in terms of intrinsic (and thus expected long-term) activity, and there is still a lack of information concerning the occurring antimicrobial mechanisms. We have identified the good stability of carbon nanomaterials in biological environment as an interesting option in terms of durability of the antimicrobial effect and will discuss this question in detail, as well as the fact that there are currently no clear conclusions concerning toxicity aspects due to the possible release of such nanoparticles in use conditions. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.