MWCNT-oxazolidinone conjugates with antibacterial activity

Abstract

In this work, two types of MWCNT-oxazolidinone conjugates were synthesized, by varying the quartz tube lengths in the reactor (40 cm and 60 cm), with the aim at evaluating and comparing their biological potential against nine bacterial strains. MWCNT-1 (40 cm) showed higher surface defects and lower crystallinity than MWCNT-2 (60 cm). During each step of chemical modification, the organic material incorporation onto the MWCNTs changed the surface defects, density, and thermic stability. Interestingly, due to the intrinsic antibacterial activity of the oxazolidinone compounds, oxazolidinone-conjugated nanomaterials f-MWCNT-Sn-Oxa were active against the evaluated strains, while none of pristine MWCNT, f-MWCNT, or f-MWCNT-Sn exhibited antibacterial activity. The results point out to f-MWCNT-S1-Oxa-1 as the best antibacterial nanomaterial because it was active against several bacterial strains. Antibacterial results obtained with the f-MWCNT-Sn-Oxa-1 series demonstrate a significant effect of the oligomethylene chain (Sn) length against Staphylococcus aureus clinically isolated strain.