EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

Antimicrobial coatings that prevent the growth of biofilms are an alternative and effective way to inhibit the spread of microbial infections. The sustainable use of these polymers for the development and application of novel green methodologies remains a challenge. This work demonstrates a facile and scalable fabrication approach for the development of new water-based, stable materials bearing biocidal groups, as potential antimicrobial and antifouling coatings for diverse applications such as paints for aquaculture nets, clean surfaces etc. The new polymeric coatings were constructed by blending water-soluble copolymers with complementary reactive groups such as acrylic acid (AA) and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA). An eco-friendly method was developed for the combination of the copolymers poly (4-vinyl benzyl trimethylammonium chloride-co-acrylic acid) P(VBCTMAM-co-AAx) and poly (cetyltrimethylammonium 4-styrenesulfonate-co-glycidyl methacrylate) P(SSAmC16-co-GMAx) to obtain crosslinked polymers bearing both covalently and electrostatically bound biocidal species. Moreover, a water-based approach was also used for the synthesis of the P(VBCTMAM-co-AAx) copolymer. All these polymers had strong antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherihia coli in standard bacterial media. Additionally, these stable materials were used for coating aquaculture nets and were evaluated in respect to their release rate using Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and Total Nitrogen (TN) measurements. Selected combinations were tested under real conditions in aquaculture farms in seawater.