Zoe Gunter

Date of Award

5-2022

Degree Type

Honors College Thesis

Academic Program

Polymer Science and Engineering BS

Department

Polymers and High Performance Materials

First Advisor

Heather Broadhead, Ph.D.

Advisor Department

Polymers and High Performance Materials

Abstract

Activated carbon (AC) has long been utilized in biomedical applications due to its innate antimicrobial characteristics. However, little is understood about the mechanism of action that allows AC to prohibit the propagation of different pathogen species. To further ascertain these characteristics and how they affect the propagation of pathogens, procedures were designed with bacterial, viral, and parasitic agents which were utilized in conjunction with varying concentrations of polymer hydrogels to examine the antimicrobial efficacy of AC. The studies performed for this thesis were conducted employing coconut-based AC and Noveon® AA-1 Polycarbophil USP or Carbopol® 974P NF hydrogels which, when introduced to bacterial, viral, and parasitic agents, limited their activity. Experiments evaluated a series of bacterial dilutions with E. coli and S. aureus, bacteriophage (viral) dilutions with T1 and Φ11 bacteriophages, and Euglena gracilis (parasite) dilutions using the AC listed above. However, polymer hydrogels were mainly utilized in the bacterial portion of this study due to time constraints. Results of all experimentation were observed and compared through visual examination or optical microscopy. When treated with AC, it was observed that all studied pathogens had a significant reduction of activity overall and that the presence of Polycarbophil did not impede the antimicrobial characteristics of AC at the lowest concentration. However, experimental optimization must be achieved to understand the efficacy of polymer hydrogels as a potential delivery system for AC.

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