TY - JOUR AB - Healthcare-associated infections pose a serious risk for patients, staff, and visitors and are a severe burden on the National Health Service, costing at least £1 billion annually. Antimicrobial surfaces significantly contribute toward reducing the incidence of infections as they prevent bacterial adhesion and cause bacterial cell death. Using a simple, easily upscalable swell–encapsulation–shrink method, novel antimicrobial surfaces have been developed by incorporating metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) and crystal violet (CV) dye into medical-grade polyurethane sheets. This study compares the bactericidal effects of polyurethane incorporating ZnO, Mg-doped ZnO, and MgO. All metal oxide NPs are well defined, with average diameters ranging from 2 to 18 nm. These materials demonstrate potent bactericidal activity when tested against clinically relevant bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Additionally, these composites are tested against an epidemic strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that is rife in hospitals throughout the UK. Furthermore, we have tested these materials using a low light intensity (∼500 lx), similar to that present in many clinical environments. The highest activity is achieved from polymer composites incorporating CV and ∼3 nm ZnO NPs, and the different performances of the metal oxides have been discussed. AU - Sehmi,SK AU - Noimark,S AU - Pike,SD AU - Bear,JC AU - Peveler,WJ AU - Williams,CK AU - Shaffer,MSP AU - Allan,E AU - Parkin,IP AU - MacRobert,AJ DO - 10.1021/acsomega.6b00017 EP - 343 PY - 2016/// SN - 2470-1343 SP - 334 TI - Enhancing the antibacterial activity of light-activated surfaces containing crystal violet and ZnO nanoparticles: investigation of nanoparticle size, capping ligand, and dopants T2 - ACS OMEGA UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.6b00017 UR - http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000391204000002&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202 UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/105990 VL - 1 ER -