Synthesis of Polyurethane/TiO2 Hybrid with High Encapsulation Efficiency Using One‐Step Miniemulsion Polymerization for Methylene Blue Degradation and its Antibacterial Applications

Abstract

AbstractWe synthesized a new polymer‐inorganic hybrid miniemulsion, called PU/TiO2 hybrid, based on one‐step miniemulsion‐polyaddition techniques with different concentrations of anatase TiO2 and rutile TiO2. Studies were carried out using a mixture of isophorone diisocyanate and bisphenol A, TiO2 (1–10 wt. %), sodium dodecyl sulfate (stabilizer), and hexadecane (co‐stabilizer). The stability, particle size, morphology, dye degradation, and antibacterial properties of PU and PU/TiO2 hybrid were investigated. The results show that the average hydrodynamic diameter of PU/TiO2 is in the range of 192–229 nm with a narrow size distribution. Field‐emission scanning electron microscopy and high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR‐TEM) images demonstrated the well‐defined structure of the hybrids. The energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDX) spectrum was used to identify the elemental composition, and sharp peaks of C (82.7 wt. %), O (7.96 wt. %), and Ti (9.34 wt. %) were observed. The HR‐TEM and EDX results provide excellent proof of the formation of the PU/TiO2 hybrid. The photocatalytic activity of the PU/TiO2 hybrid showed that the PU/aTiO2 10 wt. % hybrid demonstrated the fastest degradation rate of 95.82 % organic dye at 30 min of reaction time under UV−A irradiation (365 nm). Both S. aureus and K. pneumoniae were used to determine antibacterial activity by measuring the reduction in bacterial growth against the control, and the PU/TiO2 hybrid exhibited excellent antibacterial properties.