Antibiofouling Performance of a Metal‐Organic Gel Based on 2‐Amino‐5‐Mercapto‐1,3,4‐Thiadiazole and CuI

Abstract Metal–organic gels or metallogels (MOGs), which usually made up with metal ions and organic ligands, are promising in the area of medicine, environment, and biology. Herein, a new metal–organic gel containing Cu + (Cu‐MOG‐5) is prepared at room temperature using 2‐amino‐5‐mercapto‐1,3,4‐thiadiazole (AMT) and CuI. Considering the excellent low surface energy characteristics of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), the as‐prepared Cu‐MOG‐5 is infused into porous PDMS to obtain Cu‐MOG‐5/PDMS coating, which combines the bactericidal properties of Cu + containing hydrogels and the low surface energy of PDMS. The morphology of the Cu‐MOG‐5 and Cu‐MOG‐5/PDMS coating is investigated by FE‐SEM, and the structure of the new Cu‐MOG‐5 is verified by FT‐IR, 1 H NMR, XPS, EDS, and elemental analysis. The antibiofouling properties are assessed using Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) and mussel. The results show that the newly prepared Cu‐MOG‐5/PDMS coating exhibits superior antibiofouling performance because of the synchronous action of hydrogel including Cu + and PDMS.