Engineering of Tannic Acid Inspired Antifouling and Antibacterial Membranes through Co-deposition of Zwitterionic Polymers and Ag Nanoparticles

Recently, combining inorganic and organic components to develop a dual-functional surface (antibacterial and antifouling) has resulted in widespread investigations. However, the preparation of the dual-functional surface is limited by the availability of reactive surface chemistries at a material's surface. Herein, owing to the multifunctionality of Tannic acid (TA), we proposed a universal, simple, and environmentally friendly approach to integrate the inorganic (Ag nanoparticles) and organic (zwitterionic) components into the membrane surface to simultaneously endow the surface with antifouling and antibacterial ability, respectively. The Ag nanoparticles (NPs) and zwitterionic polymer were codeposited onto the TA decorated surface. The obtained membrane surface exhibited long-term and robust bactericidal activity. Meanwhile, due to the zwitterionic structure, the membrane could effectively resist bacterial adhesion. Additionally, the proposed strategy could also be employed to construct many kinds of dual-functional surfaces because of the versatile functionality of tannic acid.