pH-Degradable Polymers as Impermanent Antimicrobial Agents for Environmental Sustainability

pH-Degradable Polymers as Impermanent Antimicrobial Agents for Environmental Sustainability

ACS Applied Bio Materials

10.1021/acsabm.0c01402

http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsabm.0c01402

Diane S. W. Lim, Yuan Yuan, Yugen Zhang

Biochemistry (medical), Biomedical engineering, General Chemistry, Biomaterials

05 February 2021

Lim, D. S. W., Yuan, Y., & Zhang, Y. (2021). pH-Degradable Polymers as Impermanent Antimicrobial Agents for Environmental Sustainability. ACS Applied Bio Materials, 4(2), 1544–1551. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsabm.0c01402

Globally, over 100,000 tons of antibiotics are consumed each year with a significant proportion discharged into the environment. As antibiotic usage continues to rise, there is a pressing need to reduce antibiotic pollution by developing antimicrobials whose activity can be switched off after the material has served its intended purpose. We have reported a series of imidazolium polymers incorporating pH-degradable linkers. The polymers show excellent antimicrobial activity across a range of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and fungi. The introduction of pH-degradable linkers was demonstrated to facilitate environmental degradation of the polymers to inactive small molecules. Both polymers and their degradation products do not induce bacterial resistance and display moderate biodegradation in surface water.

Publisher Copyright

This research is supported by core funding from: A*STAR, BMRC
Grant Reference no. : NA

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in ACS Applied Bio Materials, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1021/acsabm.0c01402.”

https://oar.a-star.edu.sg/communities-collections/articles/18274

2576-6422

Institute of Bioengineering and Bioimaging