Antimicrobial plastics and methods of preparing the same

Abstract

A method for preparing the antimicrobial plastic includes contacting a non-leachable antimicrobial agent to a surface of a plastic article to form the antimicrobial plastic. In certain variations, the contacting includes applying a precursor antimicrobial layer including non-leachable antimicrobial agents to a surface of a plastic article to form a precursor assembly and hot pressing the precursor assembly to embed the non-leachable antimicrobial agents within the surface of the plastic article to form the antimicrobial plastic. In other variations, the contacting includes preparing an antimicrobial layer including a non-leachable antimicrobial agent on a foil and transferring the antimicrobial layer from the foil to the surface of the plastic article to form the antimicrobial plastic, where the transferring includes contacting the antimicrobial layer and the surface of the plastic article and applying a transfer temperature that is greater than a softening temperature of the plastic article.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.