biomimetics Article Three-Dimensional Printed Antimicrobial Objects of Polylactic Acid (PLA)-Silver Nanoparticle Nanocomposite Filaments Produced by an In-Situ Reduction Reactive Melt Mixing Process Nectarios Vidakis 1, Markos Petousis 1,* , Emmanouel Velidakis 1, Marco Liebscher 2 and Lazaros Tzounis 3 1 Mechanical Engineering Department, Hellenic Mediterranean University, Estavromenos, 71004 Heraklion, Crete, Greece;
[email protected] (N.V.);
[email protected] (E.V.) 2 Institute of Construction Materials, Technische Universität Dresden, DE-01062 Dresden, Germany;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +30-2810-37-9227 Received: 14 August 2020; Accepted: 31 August 2020; Published: 2 September 2020 Abstract: In this study, an industrially scalable method is reported for the fabrication of polylactic acid (PLA)/silver nanoparticle (AgNP) nanocomposite filaments by an in-situ reduction reactive melt mixing method. The PLA/AgNP nanocomposite filaments have been produced initially + reducing silver ions (Ag ) arising from silver nitrate (AgNO3) precursor mixed in the polymer melt to elemental silver (Ag0) nanoparticles, utilizing polyethylene glycol (PEG) or polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), respectively, as macromolecular blend compound reducing agents. PEG and PVP were added at various concentrations, to the PLA matrix. The PLA/AgNP filaments have been used to manufacture 3D printed antimicrobial (AM) parts by Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF). The 3D printed PLA/AgNP parts exhibited significant AM properties examined by the reduction in Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria viability (%) experiments at 30, 60, and 120 min duration of contact (p < 0.05; p-value (p): probability).