Design of surface with integrated properties of sterilization and desorption

Abstract

As might be one of the hottest topics in public health research, the war against bacteria has been going on some thousands of years. Unfortunately, we too are threatened by bacterial adhesion and contamination as the ancients even though the health and well-being of populations has been dramatically improved owing to the advances in human medicine and environmental sanitation. In this study, we designed a double-layer coating that consisted of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and carbon nanotube (CNT)-loaded polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and introduced antibacterial molecule chains (AMCs), which can repeatedly release and replenish reactive oxygen species (ROS), on the coating surface. Benefiting from the characteristics of releasing ROS after the AMCs were irradiated by NIR and wrinkle structure originated from the difference in thermal expansion coefficients between PMMA and PDMS, as revealed by Uv-visible absorption spectrum and morphological characterization, the performance of sterilization and desorption would be integrated into the coating surface by irradiating the coating surface with near-infrared (NIR) repeatedly. The results of antimicrobial experiments confirmed that all of the bacteria on the coating surface were terminated and deported after the coating was irradiated six times by NIR. Additionally, after bacteria were killed and desorbed, the coating would return to its original form and AMC could be re-endowed with the ability to release ROS through treatment, showing potential of being applied in the modification of biomaterials.