Antibacterial and Anti-Fungal Biological Activities for Acrylonitrile, Acrylamide and 2-Acrylamido-2-Methylpropane Sulphonic Acid Crosslinked Terpolymers.

Reem K. Farag,Ayman Diab,Ahmed Labena,Gehan Safwat,Salma H. AlHawari,Ayman M. Atta

doi:10.3390/ma13214891

Abstract

There is a pressing demand to synthesize polymers that have antibacterial and antifungal properties. The aim of this study was to synthesize a crosslinked hydrophilic terpolymer with acrylamide, acrylonitrile, acrylic acid, acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulphonic acid and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a crosslinker. The chemical structure and thermal stability of the prepared cross-linked terpolymers were confirmed by spectroscopic and thermal analyses. Moreover, the swelling experiments were performed to investigate their swelling capacity. Furthermore, the efficiency of the synthesized cross-linked polymer gels was assessed as an antimicrobial agent against Gram-positive, Gram-negative bacteria and fungal strains. The synthesized polymers showed broad inhibition effect, with more antibacterial activity by the AM4 polymer sample containing high percentage of acrylonitrile monomer in the prepared terpolymers (4 mol ratio of acrylic acid: 1 mol ratio of acrylamide: 16 mole ratio of acrylonitrile against Gram negative bacterial strain), while sample M3 terpolymer (1 mol ratio of acrylamide: 1 mole ratio acrylonitrile: 3 mole ratio of acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulphonic acid) showed a promising anti-fungal activity.

Highlights

Hydrogels are crosslinked hydrophilic polymeric three-dimensional structures that have the tendency to absorb enormous volumes of water and other biological fluids [1]
The reactivity ratios of acrylic acid (AA) (M1) with AN (M2) are r1 = 1.188 and r1 = 0.057 form block copolymer in the presence of K2 S2 O8 as initiator in aqueous solution that reduced the reactivity of AN [28]
The reactivity ratio of AN (M2) with AMPS (M3) are r2 = 0.193 and r3 = 0.162 indicates that the reactivity of AN towards copolymerization was increased by the incorporation of AMPS as well as AMPS/AA

Summary

Introduction

Hydrogels are crosslinked hydrophilic polymeric three-dimensional structures that have the tendency to absorb enormous volumes of water and other biological fluids [1]. They possess a high class of water content, with physical properties as high flexibility similar to soft tissues. Crosslinking is a process in the polymer chemistry that results in a network structure depending on a multi-dimensional extension of a chain polymer by a cross-link, either ionic or covalent, which link a polymer to another [3]. The cross-linking performances of the polymers can be reversible or irreversible relying on the nature of the crosslinking [4]. Conventional techniques of polymerization such as the condensation and the free-radical polymerizations were used mainly for preparation of chemically cross-linked polymers [6]

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