UV Curable Coatings Based on Urethane Acrylates Containing Eugenol and Evaluation of Their Antimicrobial Activity

Abstract

This work presents studies on the obtaining of UV-curable coatings with antimicrobial activity. Urethane acrylates (UAs) have excellent physicochemical properties including high reactivity in systems with radical photoinitiators in the presence of UV radiation and good balance between hardness and flexibility in the formed coatings. At the same time, eugenol is well known as the compound hindering the growth of various microorganisms. Hence, the materials obtained by the modification of UA resins with eugenol can be used to protect various surfaces, especially against microorganisms. This study aimed to examine the influence of the amount of eugenol on the chemical, physical, thermal, and mechanical properties of the obtained UA coatings and find the conditions at which the optimal properties for industrial applications such coatings can be achieved. These materials were successfully obtained. Taking into account that eugenol is a very cheap reactant, and it can be obtained from natural sources by the simple distillation method, the proposed method combined the good points of obtaining protective coatings by UV curing with the utilization of vegetable, renewable reactants (biomass), such as components giving special properties to these materials, in this case, antimicrobial properties. In this study, photoreactive coatings with antimicrobial properties for the following microorganisms: fungi (C. albicans), Gram-positive bacteria (S. epidermidis) as well as Gram-negative bacteria (E. coli), were obtained. The obtained coatings were cured over a short time. They were colorless and characterized by a wide range of properties and applications.

To Shed Light on the UV Curable Coating Technology: Current State of the Art and Perspectives

“…Bednarczyk and coworkers used trimethylolpropane triacrylate (TMPTA) and eugenol to develop antimicrobial coating. Reactive diluent eugenol incorporated into the coating inhibited microorganism growth [110]. Lee and coworkers used isobornyl acrylate (IBOA) as a reactive diluent to develop UV coating [111], whereas Seo and coworkers used TMPTA as a reactive diluent to achieve coating with better chemical and mechanical properties [112].…”

Study on Press Formability and Properties of UV-Curable Polyurethane Acrylate Coatings with Different Reactive Diluents

“…They reported that an increase in TMPEOTA content results in an increase in the T g , storage modulus, and mechanical properties. Antibacterial UV-curable coatings based on the polyurethane acrylate using eugenol as a reactive diluent were studied by Bednarczyk et al, who studied the influence of the amount of eugenol on the chemical, physical, thermal, and mechanical properties [ 15 ]. Oh et al reported that cardanol-based acrylates as reactive diluents for UV-curable coatings.…”