The rise of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms has become a critical issue in recent years and has promoted substantial research efforts directed to the development of more effective antimicrobial therapies utilizing different bactericidal mechanisms to neutralize infectious diseases. Modern approaches employ at least two mixed bioactive agents to enhance bactericidal effects. However, the combinations of drugs may not always show a synergistic effect, and further, could also produce adverse effects or stimulate negative outcomes. Therefore, investigations providing insights into the effective utilization of combinations of biocidal agents are of great interest. Sometimes, combination therapy is needed to avoid resistance development in difficult-to-treat infections or biofilm-associated infections treated with common biocides. Thus, this contribution reviews the literature reports discussing the usage of antimicrobial polymers along with nanomaterials or other inhibitors for the development of more potent biocidal therapies.

The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/macp.201900543. Kinetic investigations of the quaternization reactions of poly[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate] (PDMAEMA) with alkyl halides (1-iodobutane, 1-iodoheptane, and 1-iododecane) are carried out at different temperatures. For this purpose, a PDMAEMA (M n = 17.8 kDa, Ð = 1.35) synthesized via reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization is utilized. The progress of the quaternization reactions is followed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance. As expected, the rate of quaternization is higher with increasing temperature. The experimental data are used to determine the following kinetic parameters: order of the reaction, Arrhenius' pre-exponential factor, and activation energy. To the best of knowledge, this is the first contribution that provides detailed kinetic data of the quaternization reactions on PDMAEMA.

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