Self-decontaminating properties of fluorinated copolymers integrated with ciprofloxacin for synergistically inhibiting the growth of Escherichia coli.

In this paper, copolymers composed of antibacterial monomer containing ciprofloxacin, methyl methacrylate (MMA), and 2-perfluorooctylethyl methacrylate (FMA) were prepared, and the surface properties and antibacterial performance of the copolymers and blends-mixed PMMA were investigated. Surface characterization using dynamic contact angle measurement and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed that anti-adhesive fluorinated moieties and antimicrobial moieties were highly concomitant on the material surface. All the copolymers and blends films exhibited excellent antibacterial properties. It was found that the fluorinated antibacterial copolymers showed significantly enhanced antibacterial efficiency toward Escherichia coli bacterium, and even markedly prevented the formation of biofilm for long term. The PMMA films blended with fluorinated antibacterial polymer also show similar results. In contrast, the common copolymer without fluorinated units cannot effectively resist bacterial adhesion, proliferation, and prevent biofilm formation. The desirable antibacterial polymer prohibiting the biofilm formation performance of copolymer with special push-me/pull-you structure which weaken the interaction among polymer chains resulted in the more easy segregation of ciprofloxacin on surface in real environment by the help of synergistic effect of fluorinated units, potentially enabling the design of new self-decontaminating biomaterials for control biofouling.