Polyolefins with Intrinsic Antimicrobial Properties

Abstract

Polyolefins with antimicrobial properties are generally prepared through blending or coating with antimicrobial agents. However, the nonpolar nature of polyolefins brings many issues including the difficulties in homogeneous mixing. In this contribution, we report the synthesis of polyolefins with intrinsic antimicrobial properties through three different routes. First, direct copolymerization of ethylene with nitrogen-containing comonomers affords some nitrogenfunctionalized polyolefins with moderate antimicrobial properties. Subsequently, two postpolymerization functionalization routes enable the formation of imidazolium and various metal ion-functionalized polyolefins through the conversion of preinstalled chlorine and carboxylic-functional groups. In addition to high molecular weight and high functional group incorporation, these alternative routes generate polyolefins with excellent mechanical and antimicrobial properties. This work demonstrates the importance of different functional groups in determining the antimicrobial properties of polyolefin materials.

The II–I Phase Transition Behavior of Butene-1 Copolymers with Hydroxyl Groups

“…In addition, thioglycerol was substituted by 1-propyl mercaptan in the same way to prepare the reference polymer with a similar branch length but no hydroxyl group (Scheme 1). 1 H NMR results show that the reaction was complete (Figure S1b,c). The obtained polymers with and without hydroxyl groups were referred to as PBHY-2 and PBHY-0, respectively, for which the number in the sample code corresponds to the number of hydroxyl groups in each branch (see Table 1).…”

“…The obtained copolymers needed to be redissolved in toluene at 100 °C and precipitated in ethanol dropwise to wash off the excess comonomers and the residual catalyst decomposition products. Finally, the butene-1/6-iodo-1-hexene copolymers were dried in a vacuum oven at 40 °C for 24 h. The incorporation of comonomers can be measured by 1 H NMR (Figure S1a).…”

“…For this purpose, incorporating additional polar functional groups into the original nonpolar polyolefin chains is a very effective strategy [1][2][3][4]. Yuan et al synthesized functionalized polypropylenes containing hydroxyl groups and found that the dielectric constant was greatly improved owing to the alignment of polarizable pendant hydroxyl groups under an electric field [5][6][7][8].…”

Catalyst-free aziridine-based step-growth polymerization: a facile approach to optically active poly(sulfonamide amine)s and poly(sulfonamide dithiocarbamate)s

“…Effective antimicrobial polymers have attracted much interest because of their low propensity to cause drug-resistant microorganisms. [57][58][59] Moderately hydrophobic polymers containing protonated primary or secondary/tertiary amine groups display relatively higher antimicrobial activity. 60,61 For instance, the tertiary amine covalently bonded to a polystyrene fiber exhibited high antibacterial activity against Gram-negative bacteria.…”

“…It demonstrates that this kind of polymer has the same excellent antibacterial properties as other typical polymers, such as the cationic polymers bearing quaternary ammonium or imidazolium groups. 58,59 Electrostatic interaction between the bacterial cell wall and the cationic polymer membrane may cause bacterial death. 61 Moreover, we noticed that dithiocarbamate derivatives, displaying antifungal, [63][64][65] and antibacterial activities, [66][67][68] had extensive biological applications in medicinal chemistry.…”