Antimicrobial property of silver, silver-zinc and silver-copper incorporated soda lime glass prepared by ion exchange.

Antimicrobial glasses are potential candidate as an additive in powder form for many different applications which makes them practically and scientifically important. In this context, incorporation of silver, zinc and copper into the powdered soda lime glass was carried out by ion exchange treatment using single and dual ion containing mediums. Investigating the effect of dual incorporation of silver-zinc and silver-copper on the ion release ability and antimicrobial activity of the glass was the motivation of this study. Considering the chemical analysis results, incorporation of silver, zinc and copper to the glass was realized after the treatment. The amount of released silver was observed to be higher than zinc and copper in aqueous environment. Unvarying pH values indicated that antimicrobial efficacies of the glasses were merely due to the incorporated ions. Silver release was significantly reduced in dual imparted glasses compared to the single silver imparted glasses. According to the antimicrobial test results, glasses showed sufficient and controlled level of ion release also showed antimicrobial activity. It was deduced that dual incorporation of silver-zinc and silver-copper into the glass lowered the silver release which was still sufficient for effective antimicrobial activity and this contributes the long term activity.