Preparation and property characterization of cationic photoantimicrobial hydrogel

Abstract

Montmorillonite(MMT) was utilized to absorb three types of cationic photosensitizers, namely, meso-tetra(4-N-methylpyridyl)porphyrine tetratosylate (TMPyP), Zn(Ⅱ) meso-tetra (N-methyl-4-pyridyl) porphine tetrachloride (Zn-TMPyP) and methylene blue (MB), the as-obtained mixtures were then evenly dispersed in aqueous polyvinyl alcohol-styrylpyridine salt condensate (PVA-SbQ) solution, corresponding photoactive MMT/PS hydrogels were prepared by the assay of UV cross-linking eventually. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was employed to analyse morphology of MMT and one as-prepared MMT/PS hydrogel. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were applied to analyse the internal morphology and thermal properties of the as-prepared hydrogels. Finally, swelling properties and antibacterial effect against staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were investigated. The results show that three photoactive MMT/PS hydrogels are successfully prepared with good swelling properties. The as-prepared hydrogels exhibit inactivation against S. aureus to some extent, furthermore, the hydrogel which immobilizes Zn-TMPyP reveals best inactivation efficacy, with a sterilization rate of 98.49%.

Keywords

• montmorillonite
• hydrogel
• photodynamic antibacterial inactivation
• <i>staphylococcus aureus</i>