High-performance engineered conducting polymer film towards antimicrobial/anticorrosion applications

Abstract

The goal of this study was to develop a multifunctional coating material that possessed both electrical and antimicrobial properties. Polypyrrole (PPy) has proved to be transformed into N-halamine after its treatment with chlorine bleach. This PPy based N-halamine was tested to have superior antimicrobial efficacy. Its coating inactivated more than 6 log CFU of both Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli O157:H7 within one min of contact time. The stability of PPy based N-halamine was excellent, maintaining 50% of functional groups after a week storage under fluorescent light. PPy N-halamine coating was successfully synthesized by chlorination of electrodeposited PPy coating on the surface of stainless steel. This PPy N-halamine coating on stainless steel inactivated 6 log CFU of S. aureus within 60s of contact and the antimicrobial activity remained unchanged after a “recharge” cycle. In addition, the PPy N-halamine coating significantly enhanced its the anticorrosion functionality by anodically shifting the corrosion potential. This method of preparing antimicrobial/anticorrosion coating is facile, green and highly effective. The produced PPy N-halamine showed great potential to be applied as multifunctional coating for protecting steels in harsh environments.