Investigating the Antibacterial Properties of Inverse Vulcanized Sulfur Polymers



Smith, Jessica A, Mulhall, Ross, Goodman, Sean ORCID: 0000-0001-9141-1638, Fleming, George, Allison, Heather ORCID: 0000-0003-0017-7992, Raval, Rasmita and Hasell, Tom ORCID: 0000-0003-4736-0604
(2020) Investigating the Antibacterial Properties of Inverse Vulcanized Sulfur Polymers. ACS Omega, 5 (10). pp. 5229-5234.

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Abstract

More than 60 million tons of sulfur are produced as a byproduct of the petrochemical industry annually. Recently, the inverse vulcanization process has transformed this excess sulfur into functional polymers by stabilization with organic cross-linkers. These interesting new polymers have many potential applications covering diverse areas. However, there has been very little focus on the potential of these high-sulfur polymers for their antibacterial properties. These properties are examined here by exposing two common bacteria species, <i>Escherichia coli</i> (<i>E. Coli</i>) and <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> (<i>S. aureus</i>), to two structurally different, inverse vulcanized sulfur polymers: sulfur-<i>co</i>-diisopropenyl benzene (S-DIB) and sulfur dicyclopentadiene (S-DCPD). We report the highest bacteria log reduction (>log 4.3) of adhered bacterial cells (<i>S. aureus</i>) to an inverse vulcanized sulfur polymer to date and investigate the potential pathways in which antibacterial activity may occur.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Emerging Infectious Diseases, Infectious Diseases, 2 Aetiology, 2.2 Factors relating to the physical environment
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 23 Mar 2020 12:10
Last Modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:28
DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.9b04267
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3080216