Environmentally resilient antimicrobial
coatings are becoming increasingly
required for a wide range of applications. For this purpose, nanocomposite
thin films of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) filled with several
types of functionalized nanodiamonds (NDs) were processed by solvent
casting. The effects of ND inclusion and functionalization in their
morphological, structural, optical, thermal, and electrical properties
were evaluated taking into account the type of the nanofiller and
a concentration up to 2 wt %. The morphology, structure, and thermal
features of the polymer matrix are governed by the processing conditions,
and no noticeable changes occurred due to the presence of the ND fillers.
The polymer crystallized mainly in the α phase with a crystallinity
of ≈60%. In turn, the optical transmittance from 200 to 800
nm and the dielectric constant effectively depended on the ND type
and content. The inclusion of the ND particles effectively provided
antimicrobial properties to the films, which depended on the ND functionalization.
This study thus shows that the incorporation of functionalized NDs
into PVDF allows the development of antimicrobial coatings with tailorable
optical and dielectric properties, which could be of great importance
to face nowadays pandemic crisis scenario.