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, Escherichia coli (E. Coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), to two structurally different, inverse vulcanized sulfur polymers: sulfur-co-diisopropenyl benzene (S-DIB) and sulfur dicyclopentadiene (S-DCPD). We report the highest bacteria log reduction (>log 4.3) of adhered bacterial cells (S. aureus) to an inverse vulcanized sulfur polymer to date and investigate the potential pathways in which antibacterial activity may occur.

Item Type: Article
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 23 Mar 2020 12:10
Last Modified: 18 Jan 2023 23:57
DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.9b04267
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3080216