Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 3, 2026
Synthesis of Hydrogels with Antifouling Properties As Membranes for Water Purification
Published on: April 7, 2017
Mussel-inspired chitosan-polyurethane coatings for improving the antifouling and antibacterial properties of
Rui Wang1, Xin Song1, Tao Xiang1
1College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China.
Abstract:
A straightforward mussel-inspired approach was proposed to construct chitosan-polyurethane coatings and load Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) to endow polyethersulfone (PES) membranes with dual-antibacterial and antifouling properties. The macromolecule O-carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC) was directly reacted with catechol in the absence of carbodiimide chemistry to form the coating and load AgNPs via in situ reduction; while lysine (Lys) was used as a representative small molecule for comparison. Then, PEG-based polyurethane (PU) was used for constructing Lys-Ag-PU and CMC-Ag-PU composite coatings, which substantially improved the protein antifouling property of the membranes. Furthermore, the CMC-Ag-PU coating exhibited superior broad-spectrum antibacterial property towards E. coli and S. aureus than Lys-Ag-PU coating. Meanwhile, the CMC-Ag-PU coating showed sustained antifouling property against bacteria and could reload AgNPs to be regenerated as antibacterial and antifouling coating. This approach is believed to have potential to fabricate reusable antifouling and antibacterial coatings on materials surfaces for aquatic industries.
