Biocidal guanidinium and phosphonium polymeric materials

Abstract

This review presents examples of phosphonium- and guanidine-containing polymers that were previously obtained in Russia and abroad. It is known that introducting guanidinium and phosphonium groups into polymers imparts high antimicrobial activity to the materials based on them. Unique monomers, 2,2-diallyl-1,1,3,3-tetraethylguanidinium and tris(diethylamino) diallylaminophosphonium chlorides, synthesized for the first time at the Institute of Technical Chemistry of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, hold promise for the production of new biocidal polymers. These monomers were used to obtain new biocidal copolymers: quantitative physicochemical mechanisms of polymer formation processes were studied, and the potential for regulating the structure, composition, molecular weights, and biocidal properties was determined. The paper presents the resulting polymeric materials and demonstrates the great potential of polymer salts as bactericides and antiseptics. Synthesized copolymers based on guanidinium and phosphonium salts were also considered as nanostabilizing matrices for silver particles due to the presence of functional groups in the copolymers that contribute to the effective stabilization of metal nanoparticles. The resulting polymeric materials, due to their synergistic enhancement of biocidal properties, exhibit high bactericidal activity and hold great promise for the development of agents to combat bacterial biofilms.