doi.org/10.36721/PJPS.2022.35.1.SUP.233-238.1 Pak. J. Pharm. Sci., Vol.35, No.1(Suppl), January 2022, pp.233-238 233 Antimicrobial, selective antibiofilm, and antioxidant properties of plasticized PMMA/PVC and zinc oxide nano filler for biomedical applications Muhammad Abid Zia 1 , Muhammad Kaleem Khosa 1 , Majid Muneer 1 , Khalid Mahmood Zia 1 and Muhammad Jawwad Saif 2 1 Department of Chemistry, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan 2 Department of Applied Chemistry, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan Abstract: The PMMA/PVC/ZnO-nanocomposites with zinc oxide nanoparticle (particle size < 50nm) was synthesized by solution casting technique. Morphology of the synthesized nano composites have been investigated by FT-IR and XRD techniques. After characterization, synthesized composites were applied for antibacterial, selective antibiofilm and free radical scavenging screening. Antibacterial studies were measured against different bacterial strains. Antibiofilms activities were studied against those bacterial model pathogenic strains which showed highest and minimum sensitivity as a (~94 and ~88 at 160 μg/ml). Antioxidant activity of synthesized nanocomposites were measured by DPPH and showed scavenging capacity with IC 50 , 110 to > 200 μg/mL. Thus PMMA/PVC/ZnO nanocomposite showed promising antimicrobial activity and antioxidant activity that can be used for biomedical applications. Keywords: PMMA, PVC, nanocomposites, characterization. INTRODUCTION In recent years, the manufacturing of polymeric materials and nanocomposites has gained much attention as an emerging low-cost technology worldwide. Poly-(methyl methacrylate), (PMMA), is one of the most popular class of polymers which is used in composites industries. The PMMA is a long, soft chain and well-known brittle polymeric material that has been extensively used in different fields due to useful properties, such as low cost, good chemical stability, low density, non-toxicity and transparent optical properties (Wen et al., 2019). Due to outstanding biocompatibility features of PMMA with oral tissues, it is extensively used in medical applications such as dentistry, however acrylic resin has very low impact, poor strength and fatigue resistance. Many attempts have been done to strength the thermal and mechanical properties of PMMA (Yaseen et al., 2020). The most common method for increasing the toughness and thermal stability of Poly-(methyl methacrylate) is the blending of PMMA with polyvinylchloride (PVC) with high level of plasticizers and received much attention in polymeric electrolyte applications (Feng et al., 2017; Ali et al., 2015). Due to low-cost and hygienic properties, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and oxygen-containing hydrophilic PMMA are extensively used thermoplastics. (Aziz et al., 2019). PVC is used in microelectronic and plastics industries (for example, wires insulation and cables industries) because of its low combustibility, good abrasion resistance, corrosion as well as electrical insulation, and mechanical stability that arises as a result of interaction between H and Cl atoms (Suresh et al., 2017; Joseph et al., 2018; Arunkumar et al., 2017). In the insulating polymers the electrically conductive networks can be increased effectively by addition of nano-fillers. Nanofillers, metal oxide and chloride like ZnO-Nps, MnO 2 , CoCl 2 were mixed with polymers to the improvement the optical and thermal properties (Alghunaim et al., 2018; Shakir et al., 2019), among them zinc oxide as an inorganic nano-filler has an outstanding feature such as high thermal conductivity and high refractive indices, (Abdelghany et al., 2019), promising antibacterial and UV-protection properties (Hammani et al., 2018; Choudhary et al., 2018). The design of new materials, PMMA/ZnO nanocomposites, is of extra- ordinary potential which has a wide range of applications in photocatalysis, electrical switches, gas sensing, cancer treatment and tissue engineering fields (Mauro et al., 2017). Zinc oxide nanoparticles have been used as an antibacterial agent for biofilm preventions and water purification (Abdallah et al., 2020), sunscreen lotion (Osmond et al., 2010; Rasmussen et al., 2010), wound dressing (Sudheesh et al., 2012), anticancer (Guo et al., 2011), antibacterial and antioxidant activities (Premanathan et al., 2011; Das et al., 2013). The antimicrobial activity of zinc oxide nanoparticles was investigated against different bacterial strains. During bactericidal investigation, it has been found that the solubility surface area and particle size of ZnO-Nps were remained unchanged by changing the others (Li and Guo 2020). In biological systems, oxidative stress which is a major cause of cardiovascular disease, cancer, arthritis and diabetes is due to release of reactive free radical *Corresponding author: e-mail: mkhosapk@yahoo.com