Cationic polymer coating that rapidly inactivates bacteria and resists bacterial adhesion

Abstract Amphiphilic cationic polymers mimicking the membrane‐disrupting mechanism of natural antimicrobial peptides displays high‐efficacy bactericidal activity and meanwhile good biocompatibility, while electrostatic adsorption enables bacteria to adhere to substrate surfaces, effectively lowering the antimicrobial effect, so it is worthwhile to tackle the problem of bacterial adhesion to prolong its antibacterial activity. Herein, a kind of polyquaternium latex (PQL) was synthesized to coat polypropylene nonwoven fabrics (PPNFs) with bacterial repellency and rapid biocidal activity toward both Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli . Compared with polyquaternium solution coatings, latex coatings provided PPNFs with unique microscopic morphology and surface chemistry rich in polyoxyethylene moieties, achieving better resistance to bacterial adhesion, and meanwhile PQL coated PPNFs also delivered 99% killing rates against both bacteria within 2 min. After exposure to ultrasonic cleaning for 4 h, PQL modified PPNFs still demonstrated good bactericidal activity. Moreover, they also displayed low cytotoxicity. This work provides guidance for the design of antibacterial and antiadhesion coatings to combat bacterial infection.