Castor oil based polyurethane coatings with efficient antibacterial function and high biocompatibility via incorporation of glycidyltriethylammonium chloride

Recently, there is considerable interest and technical applications for antimicrobial coatings include medical products, packaging materials or filters used in air-conditioning systems. In the present study we introduce a simple and versatile methodology for the preparation of polyurethane surface coating materials. Since quaternary ammonium groups are well known biocidal compounds, firstly, an epoxy functional quaternary ammonium salt was synthesized. This compound was mixed with an epoxy terminated urethane prepolymers made from the reaction of castor oil, hexamethylene diisocyanate and glycidol. Then the coatings obtained by simple co-curing of this mixture at different weight ratios via reaction with butane diamine. All starting and final products were characterized by spectroscopic methods. The physical, mechanical and viscoelastic properties of all products were evaluated and structure-property relationship was established for different formulations. The biocompatibility of these coatings was studied by evaluation of their response to fibroblast and keratinocite cell lines. As well, the antibacterial function of these coatings was confirmed for both gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial colonies. Simple synthetic methodology, easy application to different surfaces, high level of cytocompatibility as well as high bacterial reduction ability are main merits of these newly developed materials.

Keywords:

Castor oil , Polyurethane , Quaternary group , Antibacterial