The Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Phosphorus Chemistry & Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
J Am Chem Soc. 2021 Oct 20;143(41):17250-17260. doi: 10.1021/jacs.1c08332. Epub 2021 Oct 7.
Nonbactericidal polymers that prevent bacterial attachment are important for public health, environmental protection, and avoiding the generation of superbugs. Here, inspired by the physical bactericidal process of carbon nanotubes and graphene derivatives, we develop nonbactericidal polymers resistant to bacterial attachment by using multicomponent reactions (MCRs) to introduce molecular "needles" (rigid aliphatic chains) and molecular "razors" (multicomponent structures) into polymer side chains. Computer simulation reveals the occurrence of spontaneous entropy-driven interactions between the bacterial bilayers and the "needles" and "razors" in polymer structures and provides guidance for the optimization of this type of polymers for enhanced resistibility to bacterial attachment. The blending of the optimized polymer with commercially available polyurethane produces a film with remarkably superior stability of the resistance to bacterial adhesion after wear compared with that of commercial mobile phone shells made by the Sharklet technology. This proof-of-concept study explores entropy-driven polymers resistant to bacterial attachment via a combination of MCRs, computer simulation, and polymer chemistry, paving the way for the design of nonbactericidal polymers to prevent bacterial contamination.
防止细菌附着的非杀菌聚合物对于公共卫生、环境保护和避免超级细菌的产生非常重要。在这里，受碳纳米管和石墨烯衍生物物理杀菌过程的启发，我们通过多组分反应（MCR）在聚合物侧链中引入分子“针”（刚性脂肪链）和分子“剃刀”（多组分结构），开发出了耐细菌附着的非杀菌聚合物。计算机模拟揭示了细菌双层与聚合物结构中“针”和“剃刀”之间自发熵驱动相互作用的发生，并为优化此类聚合物以增强其抗细菌附着能力提供了指导。将优化后的聚合物与市售的聚氨酯共混，得到的薄膜在磨损后对细菌附着的抗粘稳定性显著优于 Sharklet 技术制成的商用手机壳。这项概念验证研究通过多组分反应、计算机模拟和聚合物化学相结合，探索了通过熵驱动抵抗细菌附着的聚合物，为设计防止细菌污染的非杀菌聚合物铺平了道路。
