Imparting Antimicrobial and Antifouling Properties to Anion Exchange Membrane through the Modification with Gentamicin‐Based Polymer

Abstract

A series of gentamicin‐modified anion exchange membranes (AEMs) immobilized by mussel‐inspired dopamine coating is prepared in this work. The purpose is to improve antibacterial activity and fouling resistance of the commercial AEMs (AEM Type I, Fujifilm Co.). As a result of the applied modification, the hydrophilicity of membrane surface improved significantly. Thus, the as‐prepared modified AEMs exhibit the good antifouling property, in electrodialysis (ED) experiments by using the sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate and albumin from bovine serum as model foulants. Furthermore, taking into account the results of the antibacterial test, the resulting modified AEMs exhibit improved antibacterial property for Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). After a brief contact with bacteria, the antibacterial rates of modified AEMs coating with gentamicin‐based polymer are 80.11% for E. coli and 90.66% for S. aureus, which are much higher than pristine AEM (6.28% and 9.07%), respectively. In addition, the modified membrane has good operational stability during ED process and recovery ability after contamination, and also maintains satisfactory electrochemical properties. This investigation highlights a design of simple strategy for the preparation of antimicrobial and antifouling AEM, which can be used for ED.

Rechargeable Multifunctional Anti‐Bacterial AEMs for Electrodialysis: Improving Anti‐Biological Performance via Synergistic Antibacterial Mechanism

“…Fluorescence microscopy therefore was used to measure the antibacterial activity of Fuji, Fuji‐L‐CoS‐Na, and Fuji‐L‐CoS‐Na‐Cl (Figure 4f,g ), the red areas (PI dyes) are dead bacteria and the green areas (SYTO 9 dyes) are live bacteria. [ 29 ] In addition, both dyes are also absorbed by the fibers of substrate and appear red or green in the images. The S. aureus and E. coli have a low mortality rate on the surface of Fuji membranes.…”

An Overview for the Design of Antimicrobial Polymers: From Standard Antibiotic-Release Systems to Topographical and Smart Materials

“…Chemical modification of natural or synthetic polymers with biocidal agents such as drugs and cationic nitrogen-containing molecules offers a versatile approach for obtaining IAMPs for microbe-specific applications. For instance, several polymers covalently linked with antimicrobial agents have been reported (94,97,(104)(105)(106)(107)(108). These antimicrobial agents can bind through amidation, esterification, epoxy ring opening, and click chemistry reactions.…”

“…Another potential application of antimicrobial polymers is as a membrane for water treatment (67,106), in particular for filtration systems (136). The attachment of microorganisms, and the biofouling produced, is considered to be one of the main hindrances to membrane performance,…”