Synthesis, structure and antibacterial activity of a copper(II) coordination polymer based on thiophene-2,5-dicarboxylate ligand

Abstract One-dimensional copper(II) coordination polymer of [Cu(TDC)(H2O)2]·H2O (1) has been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, X-ray diffraction and thermal gravimetric analysis. 1 consists of [Cu(µ2-H2O)2]2+ chains with decorative TDC bridges, in which the coordination polyhedron of copper(II) center is distorted octahedral. The antimicrobial activity of 1 against Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli (E. coli) was investigated by determining the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC), the growth curve of bacteria and bacterial reduction assay, and the results indicated that compound 1 possesses higher performance compared with commercial copper nanoparticles and H2TDC. The bacteriostatic rate is up to 99.9% against both E. coli and S. aureus when the concentration of compound 1 is upon 300 µg/mL. The study on antibacterial mechanism showed that the compound 1 favors a slow release of Cu2+ ions and generation of destructive reactive oxygen species leading to excellent and long-term antimicrobial activities.