Antibacterial Amphiphilic Copolymers of Dimethylamino Ethyl Methacrylate and Methyl Methacrylate to Control Biofilm Adhesion for Antifouling Applications

Amphiphilic copolymers are recognized as important biomaterials and used as antibacterial agents due to their effective inhibition of bacterial growth. In current study, the amphiphilic copolymers of P(DMAEMA-co-MMA) were synthesized using free radical polymerization by varying the concentrations of hydrophilic monomer 2-dimethylamino ethylmethacrylate (DMAEMA) and hydrophobic monomer methyl methacrylate (MMA) having PDI value of 1.65–1.93. The DMAEMA monomer, through ternary amine with antibacterial property optimized copolymers, P(DMAEMA-co-MMA), compositions to control biofilm adhesion. Antibacterial activity of synthesized copolymers was elucidated against Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538) and Gram-negative Escherchia coli (ATCC 8739) by disk diffusion method, and zones of inhibition were measured. The desired composition that was PDM1 copolymer had shown good zones of inhibition i.e., 19 ± 0.33 mm and 20 ± 0.33 mm for E. coli and S. aureus respectively. The PDM1 and PDM2 have exhibited significant control over bacterial biofilm adhesion as tested by six well plate method. SEM study of bacterial biofilm formation has illustrated that these copolymers act in a similar fashion like cationic biocide. These compositions viz. PDM1 and PDM2, may be useful in development of bioreactors, sensors, surgical equipment and drug delivery devices.