Synthesis of iodine-povidone-co-thiazole nanoporous membrane with antibacterial activity and application in water treatment

In order to prevent the spread of the epidemics caused by pathogenic microorganisms, it is very important to explore antimicrobial materials. In this paper, a novel antimicrobial polymer materials with dual active centers, iodine-povidone-co-thiazole nanoporous membrane (IPoTaNm), was successfully synthesized by one-pot emulsion polymerization followed by iodine complexation. The micromorphology and composition were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), dynamic light scattering (DLS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and contact angle test. Then, its antimicrobial performance was measured by using Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus as test strains. It indicated that IPoTaNm exhibits excellent antibacterial activity, which the inhibition rate got to 99.9 % after 48 h. It also presented sustaining bactericidal activity, which the antimicrobial activity maintained 99.9 % even after >7 days. The synergistic antimicrobial mechanism of thiazole units (AcT) and iodine in IPoTaNm was discussed, and some facters for their inhibitory effects in the water column were investigated. In summary, the obtained IPoTaNm with dual active centers was an excellent candidate for minimizing bacteria-infection in different functional materials, which has potential applications in wastewater treatment to reduce bacterial infections.