PANI-chitosan-TiO2 ternary nanocomposite and its effectiveness on antibacterial and antistatic behavior of epoxy coating

A straightforward approach has been developed for fabricating antibacterial and antistatic epoxy coatings by using polyaniline-chitosan modified TiO2 ternary nanocomposite. This nanocomposite was synthesized through the following steps. First, chitosan was grafted onto the TiO2 nanoparticles and then final nanocomposite was prepared via solution polymerization of aniline. Electrical conductivity measurement revealed that nanocomposite with 7.5 wt % of the modified TiO2 nanoparticles has noticeably higher conductivity compared to polyaniline. Evaluating the coatings' antibacterial property indicated epoxy coatings with the content of ternary nanocomposite show significant bactericidal activity against Gram-positive bacteria and have acceptable antibacterial action against Gram-negative ones. Also, obtained results showed that the ternary nanocomposite would greatly decrease coatings' surface resistivity and when nanocomposite content is about 2 wt % surface resistivity is about 3 x 10(7) omega sq(-1). On the contrary, the coating with nanocomposite loading exhibits improved thermal and mechanical performance compared to the coating made of neat epoxy. (c) 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019, 136, 47629.