Constructing Acrylate Copolymer Microspheres with Anisotropic Wrinkled Surface for Conjugating Antibacterial AgNPs

Abstract

AbstractRecently, anisotropic particles have attracted attention because their unique topology, functions and wide applications. Here, a new type of acrylate copolymer microspheres (AcPMs) with anisotropic wrinkled surface was synthesized with conventional monomers through two‐step self‐assembly in one‐pot with regulating reaction media. First, butyl acrylate (BA), methyl methacrylate (MMA) and methacrylic acid (MAA) were copolymerized in EtOH/H2O solvent. Second, styrene (St) and BA were further copolymerized with increasing H2O proportion in solution, which enable AcPMs with emulsifiability. Its structure and morphology were characterized by FT‐IR, SEM, XRD and DLS. The surface‐wrinkled and anisotropic AcPMs was used as carrier to conjugate with AgNPs by in‐situ reduction of silver ions (Ag+), which afforded the AcPMs conjugating AgNPs (AgNPs@AcPMs), and it presented an excellent antibacterial activity against S. aureus and E. coli. Hence, AcPMs revealed strong potential in the biomedical fields.