Abstract
Thermosetting polymers derived from vegetable oils (VOs) exhibit a wide range of outstanding properties that make them suitable for coatings, paints, adhesives, food packaging, and other industrial appliances. In addition, some of them show remarkable antimicrobial activity. Nonetheless, the antibacterial properties of these materials can be significantly improved via incorporation of very small amounts of metal oxide nanoparticles (MO-NPs) such as TiO2, ZnO, CuO, or Fe3O4. The antimicrobial efficiency of these NPs correlates with their structural properties like size, shape, and mainly on their concentration and degree of functionalization. Owing to their nanoscale dimensions, high specific surface area and tailorable surface chemistry, MO-NPs can discriminate bacterial cells from mammalian ones, offering long-term antibacterial action. MO-NPs provoke bacterial toxicity through generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that can target physical structures, metabolic paths, as well as DNA synthesis, thereby leading to cell decease. Furthermore, other modes of action—including lipid peroxidation, cell membrane lysis, redox reactions at the NP–cell interface, bacterial phagocytosis, etc.—have been reported. In this work, a brief description of current literature on the antimicrobial effect of VO-based thermosetting polymers incorporating MO-NPs is provided. Specifically, the preparation of the nanocomposites, their morphology, and antibacterial properties are comparatively discussed. A critical analysis of the current state-of-art on these nanomaterials improves our understanding to overcome antibiotic resistance and offers alternatives to struggle bacterial infections in public places.
Highlights
Over the past few decades, the manufacture and applications of synthetic polymeric materials exhibited an extraordinary boost
Metallic elements combine with oxygen to form metal oxides (MOs), which have been demonstrated to interact with bacteria by means of electrostatic interactions that modify the prokaryotic cell wall and damage the DNA via reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation [20]
The antibacterial properties depend on a number of parameters, including the NP size, shape, level of functionalization and in particular, their concentration in the nanocomposite
Summary
Over the past few decades, the manufacture and applications of synthetic polymeric materials exhibited an extraordinary boost. The main elements acids of the whole weight of triglycerides and their composition changes depending on the plant, harvest, season, growing conditions, and purification methods character bestows improved antibacterial properties to the resulting polymeric systems. The fatty acids have different levels of saturation and unsaturation [5], being the unsaturated part the elements of VOs areon triglycerides, which are the and result oftothe esterification of glycerol with three fatty changes depending the plant, harvest, season, growing conditions, and purification methods one that can be functionalized to yield the liquid resin be used for the polymer synthesis. The chain chain length ofallylic fatty acids infor triglycerides occurring inbe nature reactive points of the triglycerides—like double bonds, carbons, and ester groups—can used to introduce polymerizable groups.
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