Construction of thiazole-zwitterionic copolymer nanospheres with iso-bifunctional groups for excellent antibacterial activity.

In order to mitigate hazard of harmful microbes, the development of innovative antibacterial agents and materials became increasingly imperative. In this work, using acrylic thiazole (AcT) as hydrophobic/antibacterial monomer, zwitterionic betaine sulfonate (SBMA) as hydrophilic/antifouling groups, benzyl methacrylate (BM) as comonomer, and N , N -methylenebisacrylamide (NMBA) as cross-linking monomer, a novel thiazole-zwitterionic copolymer nanospheres (TZPNs) containing iso-bifunctional groups was designed and successfully synthesized through one-pot emulsion copolymerization in the system of dispersing agent (polyvinyl alcohol: PVA). The obtained nanospheres (TZPNs) were characterized by FT-IR, XPS, SEM, and DLS. Its antibacterial performance against Gram-positive of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Gram-negative of Escherichia coli (E. coli) was systematically evaluated. It indicated TZPNs exhibits excellent antibacterial performance, and the inhibition rate was more than 99.9 % and the antibacterial mechanism with iso-bifunctional groups was also discussed. More importantly, its applications were extended to common materials, such as coatings, ink and dye. In summary, TZPNs was an excellent candidate for minimizing bacteria-infection in different functional materials and could be applied in different fields. [Display omitted] • A novel thiazole-zwitterionic copolymer nanosphere (TZPNs) was constructed by monomers with different functions. • TZPNs with iso-bifunctional groups could rapidly and effectively inhibit bacteria. • The inhibition rate was more than 99.9 % towards bacteria, and actual application. • The obtained TZPNs could be used as antibacterial agent in different fields including coating, dye and ink. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]