Synthesis of New Biobased Antibacterial Methacrylates Derived from Tannic Acid and Their Application in UV-Cured Coatings

Abstract

A series of biobased UV-curable antibacterial resins were synthesized through modifying tannic acid (TA) with varied amount of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA). The obtained TA-based methacrylates exhibited good film-forming property and can be cross-linked under UV irradiation. Thus, antibacterial functionalities can be tethered in the coating matrix, eliminating the loss of antibacterial ingredients. The antibacterial properties of resins and corresponding coatings against Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative Escherichia coli were tested. The resins with high content of phenolic hydroxyl groups retained strong antibacterial ability while the ones with a relatively low content of phenolic hydroxyl groups did not, which indicated that the antimicrobial effects of TA greatly depended on the content of phenolic hydroxyl groups. The applications of UV-curable antibacterial resins in coatings were also studied. The cured coatings of TA-G5 resins with the highest content of phenolic hydroxyl groups exhibited the highest antibacterial activity with 5 log reduction. The basic properties of UV-cured coatings were also fully characterized, and the results demonstrated that the novel UV-curable resins had potential applications in UV-curable antibacterial coatings.