Design of antibacterial surfaces by a combination of electrochemistry and controlled radical polymerization

In this paper we report a new method for the electrochemical deposition of a metal/polymer composite layer on a conducting substrate. The electrochemical solution is a mixture of an acrylate (ethyl acrylate, EA; 2-phenyl-2-(2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yloxy)ethyl acrylate, PTEA; 8-quinolinyl acrylate, 8QA), a metallic salt (silver(I) acetate), and a conducting salt in dimethylformamide. The process has been first studied with EA as the polymer precursor and then extended to PTEA and 8QA, respectively, with the purpose to prepare antibacterial surfaces. The final coating has been characterized by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, environmental scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. All the silver-containing coatings were effective against Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli. Bacteria Staphylococcus aureus could not adhere to the Ag(0)/polyacrylate films deposited on stainless steel.