Polypyrrole grafted with chitosan (PPy-g-CS) and poly (pyrrole-N-(1-naphthyl) ethylenediamine, a copolymer, (COP) have been synthesized by a one-step microwave procedure with carbon dots(C-Dots) as initiators. The electrostatic interaction between the positively charged polymers and negatively charged microbial cell membranes is widely anticipated to be responsible for cellular lysis. However, Escherichia coli exposed to PPy-g-CS (zeta potential = +46.9 mV) was completely perished after 3 h while COP (zeta potential = +64.1 mV) exhibited no antimicrobial effect. The two polymers were capable of eradicating Staphylococcus aureus, implying the charged effect is the main mechanism of cell death. The two polymers could also chelate calcium and other nutrients as well as form an external barrier to suppress the penetration of essential nutrients to support microbial survival and proliferation. In particular, pyrrole grafted chitosan was reasoned to stack onto the bacterial surface to impede the mass transfer and suppress the bacterial metabolic activity. The binding of chitosan to teichoic acids, essential acids of Gram-positive bacteria, would provoke a sequence of events and lead to bacterial death.
Keywords: Carbon dots; antibacterial activity; microwave-assisted synthesize; poly (pyrrole-N-(1-naphthyl) ethylenediamine; polypyrrole/chitosan.
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