Acoustic shock-engineered 6-methylcoumarin as the active antibacterial agent

Although numerous newly developed materials and molecules have demonstrated promising antibacterial properties, there remains significant interest in strategies to further enhance the antimicrobial performance of existing compounds. Therefore, 6-methylcoumarin (MC) was selected as a model compound to explore the enhancement of its antibacterial potential through an innovative and straightforward treatment approach. The present study investigates the potential of acoustic shock-wave engineering for the molecule, MC. Controlled shock treatments of 100, 200, and 300 cycles were applied to MC using a semi-automatic Reddy tube system, and DRS, FT-IR, ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy, FE-SEM, and XRD analysis thoroughly characterized the resulting materials. Spectroscopic results confirmed that the molecular structure of MC remained unchanged after all shock exposures, indicating that the acoustic shock wave treatment did not induce chemical modifications. However, FE-SEM observations revealed slight alterations in surface morphology, suggesting that the shock waves affected the material's physical properties. Antibacterial assays demonstrated that the sample subjected to 300 shock cycles exhibited noticeably enhanced antibacterial activity compared to the untreated and lower-cycle samples. These findings demonstrate that acoustic shock engineering can effectively tune the surface properties of MC, thereby enhancing its antibacterial efficacy without altering its chemical structure, and offer a simple and environmentally friendly approach to developing more active antibacterial agents.