Development of Environmentally Friendly Biocidal Coatings Based on Water-soluble Copolymers for Air-cleaning Filters

Air pollution by pathogens has posed serious concern on global health during the last decades, especially since the breakout of the last pandemic. Therefore, advanced high-efficiency techniques for air purification are highly on demand. However, in air-filtering devices, the prevention of secondary pollution that may occur on the filters remains a challenge. Toward this goal, in the present work, we demonstrate a facile and eco-friendly process for the biocidal treatment of commercial high efficiency particulate air filters. The antibacterial filters were successfully prepared through spray coating of aqueous solutions based on biocidal water-soluble polymers, poly(sodium 4-styrene sulfonate-co-cetyl trimethylammonium 4-styrene sulfonate-co-glycidyl methacrylate) [P(SSNa24-co- SSAmC1656-co-GMA20)] and poly(2-dimethylaminoethyl)methacrylate. Significantly, an optimized green route was developed for the synthesis of the used polymers in aqueous conditions and their stabilization through cross-linking reaction, leading to biocidal air filters with long-lasting activity. The developed coatings presented strong and rapid antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus (in 5 min) and Escherichia coli (in 15 min). Moreover, the cytotoxicity test of the polymeric materials toward & UAlpha;549 lung adenocarcinoma cells indicated very low toxicity as they did not affect either the cell growth or cell morphology. The above-mentioned results together with the scalable and easy-to-produce green methodology suggest that these materials can be promising candidates as filter coatings for use on air-purification devices.

Automated summary

Air pollution caused by pathogens has gained significant attention in recent years due to its impact on global health. In this study, researchers have developed a spray coating method to produce antibacterial air filters, effectively addressing the challenge of preventing secondary pollution in air-filtering devices. These filters exhibit strong and rapid antibacterial activity, making them promising candidates for filter coatings in air-purification devices.