Modulating antimicrobial activity by synthesis: dendritic copolymers based on nonquaternized 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate by Cu-mediated ATRP.

The synthesis of novel star-like heteroarms polymers A(BC)(n) containing m-PEG (block A), methylmethacrylate (MMA), and nonquaternized 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) (blocks BC) is here reported. We demonstrated that copolymer films with comparable amounts of DMAEMA have antimicrobial properties strongly depending on the topological structure (i.e., the number of arms) of the composing copolymers. We interpret the highest antimicrobial activity of A(BC)(2) with respect to A(BC)(4) and linear copolymers (respectively, A(BC)(2) ≥ A(BC)(4) > A(BC)) as probably due to the formation of strong hydrogen bonds between close amino-ammonium groups in the A(BC)(2) film. Strong hydrogen bonds seem to be somewhat disfavored in the case of the linear species by the difference in both polymer architecture and film morphology compared with the A(BC)(2) and A(BC)(4) architectures.