Lysine grafted poly(lactic acid): An intrinsically antimicrobial polymer

Nosocomial infections or healthcare-associated infections, normally develops after the healthcare treatment in the hospital. Most of them are caused by infected medical devices. Plastics are the most common materials for manufacturing these devices because of their good processability, sterilization efficacy, ease of handling and harmlessness, however, it usually do not display antimicrobial properties. Here, in order to infer antimicrobial activity to poly(lactic acid), it was modified by maleation, followed by l-lysine grafting to its structure. The chemical modifications were confirmed by FTIR and