Table 1.

Summary of the main antimicrobial structures used to develop various mechanisms to repel and destroy microbes.

Antimicrobial Polymer Devices	Employed Polymeric Structures	Antimicrobial Principle	Ref.
Drug-loaded polymers	Nanoparticles, micelles, vesicles, dendritic structures	Delivery and release of drugs or other biocidal components	[30,31,32,33,34]
Polymeric hydrogels	Gel-like microstructures	Employment of drugs/biocides to kill microbes	[35,36]
Surface-bound polymers	Various structures: (bottle)brushes, spherical nanoparticles (micelles, vesicles), rods, fibers, worms, multilayers, etc.	Neutral polymer-based surfaces (steric repulsion) Anionic polymer-based surfaces (electrostatic repulsion) Ultrahydrophobic (low-energy) polymer-based surfaces Contact killing surfaces (cationic, use of biocidal moieties) Biocide releasing surfaces (use of biocides) Stimuli-responsive surfaces (temperature, pH, etc.) Adaptive bactericidal surfaces	[37,38,39,40]