In situ polymerization of curcumin incorporated polyurethane/zinc oxide nanocomposites as a potential biomaterial

Curcumin incorporated polyurethanes (CPU) are gaining much attention as a biomaterial. However, challenges are still remained due to hydrophobicity and low mechanical strength of CPU. Herein, we synthesized the CPU/ZnO nanocomposites with good mechanical and improved hydrophilic properties via in-situ polymerization. A series of curcumin incorporated polyurethane with different concentrations of ZnO nanoparticles (ZnCPU) are synthesized by using the curcumin, polyethylene glycol (PEG) as the soft segment, hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) as the hard segment, and 1,4-butanediol (BDO) as the chain extender. The addition of ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) facilitated the soft domain of PU which is confirmed by DSC analysis. TGA results revealed that the thermal stability of PU is improved by the incorporation of curcumin and ZnO NPs into the backbone of PU. The sample Zn2CPU showed the enhanced storage moduli which is due to the disturbance of hydrogen bonding between the soft and hard segment of PU. The addition of ZnO NPs in the CPU demonstrated interesting results for the mechanical analysis as the breaking strain of sample Zn3CPU (2331%) is higher than the CPU (1758%). It is also observed that the hydrophilicity is increased with the addition of ZnO in ZnCPU. The results of antibacterial activity showed the maximum decline of active bacterial growth (11 ± 1.55%) with the 5% content of ZnO NPs. Generally, these synthesized ZnCPU composites can be employed as an effective biomaterial in the future. • Curcumin incorporated polyurethanes (CPU) are prepared with different contents of ZnO nanoparticles. • The improved thermo-mechanical properties of synthesized nanocomposites are tested by DSC, TGA, DMA, and UMT techniques. • The active bacterial growth tended to decline by 11% when the ZnO content is increased to 5%. • The hydrophilicity of the CPU is enhanced by the addition of ZnO.