First use of grape waste-derived building blocks to yield antimicrobial materials

Grape marc is an underutilised waste material that poses significant environmental issues. This study offers the first proof-of-concept investigation into the polymerisation of both crude and purified Sauvignon blanc grape marc extracts using the diacyl chlorides terephthaloyl chloride, succinyl chloride, adipoyl chloride, sebacoyl chloride, and the tartaric acid derivative (4R,5R)-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxolane-4,5-dicarbonyl dichloride to obtain new materials, in what to the best of our knowledge is the first reported example of a direct polymerisation of an agricultural waste extract. A total of 26 novel materials were prepared. It has also shown that quercetin, a phenolic monomer found in grape marc extracts, can be polymerised with (4R,5R)-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxolane-4,5-dicarbonyl dichloride to give a polymer that shows activity towards S. aureus.