The facile preparation and antibacterial performance of a conductive polymer-PU coating under visible light

Designing effective and nontoxic antibacterial coatings is a new challenge under visible light radiation. We designed and prepared a disinfection coating where the photocatalytic conductor polymer (PTET-T-COOH) is a photoactive agent and polyurethane (PU) functions as a substrate using the drop casting method. The (PTET-T-COOH)-PU coating was applied to the inactivation experiment of Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis), and the coating had high antibacterial activity and stability due to the generation of chemical bonds between the -COOH of PTET-T-COOH and the -NCO of PU. Under visible light irradiation, the inactivation efficiency towards S. epidermidis of the (PTET-T-COOH)-PU coating can reach 100% within 6 h with 1.8 wt% PTET-T-COOH. It is worth noting that the antibacterial coating can be well attached to surfaces such as glass, plastic, and aluminium plates and can still maintain good antibacterial activity and stability, which provides a basis for the practical application of antibacterial coatings.