A ternary nanohybrid of Copper@Zinc oxide for antistatic and antibacterial applications
In a current study, a facile and cost-effective approach has been developed for fabricating antibacterial and antistatic waterborne polyurethane (WPU)-based coatings by using Polyaniline-Copper@Zinc oxide (P-Cu@ZnO) ternary nanohybrid as a multifunctional additive.
The solid-state reaction of copper acetate and zinc acetate salts led to the synthesis of copper clusters on the ZnO nanoparticles (Cu@ZnO). The obtained Cu@ZnO nanoparticles were intercalated with polyaniline (PANI) chains to prepare the P-Cu@ZnO nanohybrid. FTIR, XRD, UV–Vis, and FESEM analyses were used to characterize the structural, crystallographic, and morphological properties of the synthesized nanohybrid. Adding P-Cu@ZnO nanohybrid to the WPU matrix not only improved adhesion strength of the coatings but also enhanced their scratch resistance compared to the pristine WPU coating.
Electrical surface resistance
Moreover, incorporation of the obtained nanohybrid into the WPU coatings caused electrical surface resistance of the obtained coatings to reach 1.2 × 10+8 Ω/sq, so, these coatings gained the optimum electrical surface resistance to be counted as an antistatic coating. Also, the results of the colony counting test showed that the modified coatings could reduce the Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli bacteria growth by about 86% and 74%, respectively.
The study is published in: Journal of Coatings Technology and Research September 2019, Volume 16, Issue 5, pp 1411–1422.
