Antibiofouling Performance of a Metal-Organic Gel Based on 2-Amino-5-Mercapto-1,3,4-Thiadiazole and CuI

Metal-organic gels or metallogels (MOGs), which usually made up with metal ions and organic ligands, are promising in the area of medicine, environment, and biology. Herein, a new metal-organic gel containing Cu+ (Cu-MOG-5) is prepared at room temperature using 2-amino-5-mercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole (AMT) and CuI. Considering the excellent low surface energy characteristics of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), the as-prepared Cu-MOG-5 is infused into porous PDMS to obtain Cu-MOG-5/PDMS coating, which combines the bactericidal properties of Cu+ containing hydrogels and the low surface energy of PDMS. The morphology of the Cu-MOG-5 and Cu-MOG-5/PDMS coating is investigated by FE-SEM, and the structure of the new Cu-MOG-5 is verified by FT-IR, H-1 NMR, XPS, EDS, and elemental analysis. The antibiofouling properties are assessed using Escherichia coli (E. coli) and mussel. The results show that the newly prepared Cu-MOG-5/PDMS coating exhibits superior antibiofouling performance because of the synchronous action of hydrogel including Cu+ and PDMS.

Automated summary

Metal-organic gels (MOGs) have promising applications in various fields. In this study, a new Cu+-containing metal-organic gel (Cu-MOG-5) was successfully prepared. The Cu-MOG-5 was infused into porous PDMS to obtain a Cu-MOG-5/PDMS coating, which exhibited both antibacterial properties of Cu+-containing hydrogel and low surface energy of PDMS. The results demonstrated excellent antibiofouling performance of the Cu-MOG-5/PDMS coating due to the synergistic action of the hydrogel and PDMS.