2010-Photomodifiable Antibacterial Materials Based on Photosensitive Anthraquinone

Photomodifiable Antibacterial Materials Based on Photosensitive Anthraquinone

Ning Liu, University of California-Davis


In spite of new discoveries of nonrenewable resources every year, the world population keeps growing in an increased rate, and global warming problem becomes more and more serious. Meanwhile, pollutions caused by traditional manufacturing processes are threatening the ecological balance of the earth. Development and promotion of green technology are becoming more and more important. Thus, the economic and eco-friendly UV technology has captured lots of attention and been widely utilized.
In polymer science field, UV technology is mainly applied to modify surface, initiate
polymerization as well as provide antibacterial effect. Photoinitiators are required to initiate the desirable reactions. More recently, dyes and colorants were found capable of serving as photo-initiators. In this research, three similar acid dyes: 2-anthraquinone sulfonate, 6-anthraquinone sulfonate, 2,7-anthraquinone sulfonate have been used to
initiate the polymerization of vinyl monomers under UVA irradiation. Their photochemistry
and photophysics have also been studied exclusively.
In a previous paper, we reported an efficient and controllable grafting reaction on polyamide by immobilizing 2-AQS through a simple acid dyes dying process. In this paper, besides exploring the applicability of this method to protein polymers such as wool and silk, we report that under UVA irradiation, these compounds also demonstrated excellent antibacterial function when immobilized on the polymer.