A Shape- Adaptive, Antibacterial- Coating of Immobilized Quaternary- Ammonium Compounds Tethered on Hyperbranched Polyurea and its Mechanism of Action

Quaternary-ammonium-compounds are potent cationic antimicrobials used in everyday consumer products. Surface-immobilized, quaternary-ammonium-compounds create an antimicrobial contact-killing coating. We describe the preparation of a shape-adaptive, contact-killing coating by tethering quaternary-ammonium-compounds onto hyperbranched polyurea coatings, able to kill adhering bacteria by partially enveloping them. Even after extensive washing, coatings caused high contact-killing of Staphylococcus epidermidis, both in culture-based assays and through confocal-laser-scanning-microscopic examination of the membrane-damage of adhering bacteria. In culture-based assays, at a challenge of 1600 CFU/cm(2), contact-killing was >99.99%. The working-mechanism of dissolved quaternary-ammonium-compounds is based on their interdigitation in bacterial membranes, but it is difficult to envisage how immobilized quaternary-ammonium-molecules can exert such a mechanism of action. Staphylococcal adhesion forces to hyperbranched quaternary-ammonium coatings were extremely high, indicating that quaternary-ammonium-molecules on hyperbranched polyurea partially envelope adhering bacteria upon contact. These lethally strong adhesion forces upon adhering bacteria then cause removal of membrane lipids and eventually lead to bacterial death.