Preparation and performance of light-cured antimicrobial coatings with acrylamide quaternary ammonium salt as antimicrobial agent

The synthesis of dimethylaminopropylmethacrylamide-benzylammonium chloride (QD-BC), a kind of acrylamide quaternary ammonium salt, through the combination of N-dimethylamine propyl methacrylamide and benzyl chloride (BC) is presented in this paper. The structure of QD-BC was analyzed using FTIR, carbon spectrum, mass spectrometry and ¹HNMR spectroscopy. The resulting product was then utilized for the preparation of light-cured antimicrobial coatings. The mechanical properties of the light-cured coatings were evaluated through drawing tests, etc. The antimicrobial efficacy of coatings with varying contents of QD-BC against E. coli and S. aureus was investigated. The results indicate that the coating with the QD-BC content of 7.2% exhibits maximum adhesion strength, reaching 0.87 MPa. Moreover, when the QD-BC content is 6%, the coating displays a hardness value of 5H while maintaining good flexibility throughout all formulations tested. The coating with QD-BC content of 7.5% shows the highest impact strength among all compositions studied. Furthermore, at respective concentrations of 7.5% and 4.2% for the E. coli and S. aureus testing strains, these coatings demonstrate complete antimicrobial activity with exceptional durability.