Antibacterial silicylacrylate copolymer emulsion for antifouling coatings

Employing silicylacrylate and cationic acrylate as functional monomers, a novel silicylacrylate copolymer (SAC) antibacterial emulsion was successfully synthesized by soap-free emulsion polymerization. The effect of functional monomers, initiator and temperature on stability and antibacterial activity of SAC emulsion were investigated. Additionally, the morphology, structure and mechanical properties of SAC copolymer particles and film were characterized by FTIR, SEM, TEM and TGA. The results revealed that moderately increasing initiator and reaction temperature could largely improve conversion and reaction rate in the polymerization system. A balanced amount of silicylacrylate (10%) and cationic acrylate (6%) were not only capable of increasing the crosslinking property of SAC copolymer, but also endowing SAC emulsion with good homogeneity and stability. In conclusion, based on a non-toxic and non-biocide-release principle which could be regarded as a green and economic synthetic strategy, we obtained SAC coating with obvious antibacterial activity and excellent mechanical properties which enabled to be applied in antifouling coatings to prevent the undesirable accumulation of microorganisms on substrate surfaces.