Anti-bacterial coating with CuO nanoparticles
A new work focuses on the preparation and characterisation of an anti-bacterial self-healing polymeric coating by linseed oil encapsulated in a poly (urea-formaldehyde) shell with CuO addition.
The synthesised microcapsules (MCs) were characterised using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. The corrosion properties of the prepared coatings were investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and potentiodynamic polarisation examinations in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution. The results indicated that the corrosion performance of the coating was improved demonstrating that the most elevated corrosion resistance (Icorr =49.5 μA/cm2, Ecorr = −0.56 V) is gotten by adding 15 wt% MCs, and by increasing the MCs concentration improves the corrosion rate while the mechanical properties decrease.
Efficient antibacterial functioning
In addition, self-healing coatings exhibited efficient antibacterial functioning against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) due to the release of CuO nanoparticles in the damaged areas. The samples with 4 g/lit of CuO in the healing agent completely inhibited antibacterial activity. Moreover, the copper oxide nanoparticles were more effective against S. aureus bacteria than E. coli.
The study has been published in Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 184, November 2023.
