A straightforward approach has been developed for fabricating antibacterial and antistatic epoxy coatings by using polyanilinechitosan modified TiO 2 ternary nanocomposite. This nanocomposite was synthesized through the following steps. First, chitosan was grafted onto the TiO 2 nanoparticles and then final nanocomposite was prepared via solution polymerization of aniline. Electrical conductivity measurement revealed that nanocomposite with 7.5 wt % of the modified TiO 2 nanoparticles has noticeably higher conductivity compared to polyaniline. Evaluating the coatings' antibacterial property indicated epoxy coatings with the content of ternary nanocomposite show significant bactericidal activity against Gram-positive bacteria and have acceptable antibacterial action against Gram-negative ones. Also, obtained results showed that the ternary nanocomposite would greatly decrease coatings' surface resistivity and when nanocomposite content is about 2 wt % surface resistivity is about 3 × 10 7 Ω sq −1 . On the contrary, the coating with nanocomposite loading exhibits improved thermal and mechanical performance compared to the coating made of neat epoxy.

Surfaces with antibacterial and antistatic functionalities are one of the new demands of todays' industry. Therefore, a facile method for the preparation of multifunctional polyaniline/copper/TiO2 (PANI/Cu/TiO2) ternary nanocomposite based on in situ polymerization is presented. This nanocomposite was characterized through the different techniques and was utilized for induction of antibacterial and antistatic properties in polyurethane coatings. Measurement of the conductivity of PANI/Cu/TiO2 ternary nanocomposite indicated higher electrical conductivity of this nanocomposite compared to pure PANI. The antibacterial activity of the modified polyurethane coatings was tested against Gram‐positive and Gram‐negative bacteria which led to remarkable reduction in bacterial growth. Besides, it was observed that polyurethane coating with 2 wt % content of ternary nanocomposite has a surface electrical resistance equal 4 × 108 Ω/sq which acquires surface electrical resistance of standard antistatic coatings. The final coatings were also characterized in terms of thermal and mechanical properties to investigate the effect of the ternary nanocomposite on improvement of these properties. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020, 137, 48825.

In this study, a facile method for the production of Antibacterial and Antistatic polyurethane coatings was investigated using copper modified ZnO nanoparticles-polyaniline nanofibers (PANI-CuZnO) ternary nanocomposite. PANI-CuZnO ternary nanocomposite was synthesized through two steps. First, copper-modified ZnO nanoparticles were produced through the hydrolysis method using acetate precursors, and then they were mixed with polyaniline nanofibers, which were synthesized by seeding method. The obtained nanocomposite was characterized by FTIR, XRD, and FESEM techniques. Results of evaluating the antibacterial action of the polyurethane coatings with the content of ternary nanocomposite showed that the obtained coatings have a proper antibacterial action against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. In addition, measuring the coatings' surface electrical resistance revealed that addition of the ternary nanocomposite to the polyurethane coatings' matrix causes the surface electrical resistance of the coatings significantly decreases and reaches 8 × 10 7 Ω/sq. Thereby, they could be categorized as an antistatic coating. Moreover, the addition of PANI-CuZnO enhanced adhesion strength and scratch resistance of the final polyurethane coatings.

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