Antimicrobial nanoscale fibers from electrospinning zwitterionic copolymers

POLY 88

Rebecca H. Huyck, Matthew T. Hunley, Michael H. Allen Jr., and Timothy E. Long, telong@vt.edu. Department of Chemistry, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061
Polybetaines are a class of zwitterionic polymers with a variety of biological applications including biomedical device coatings, drug delivery, and antimicrobials. Two sulfobetaine monomers, N-(3-sulfopropyl)-N-methacryloxyethyl-N,N-dimethylammonium betaine and N-(3-Sulfopropyl)-N-methacryloylamidopropyl-N,N-dimethylammonium betaine, were copolymerized with n-butyl acrylate in DMSO via conventional free radical polymerization to produce low Tg zwitterionic copolymers containing 3-13 mol% sulfobetaine. The effect of zwitterionic type (methacrylate versus methacrylamide) and concentration on solution properties were studied using solution rheology and electrospinning. Zwitterionic copolymers were electrospun from 80/20 v/v chloroform/ethanol solutions at 2-7 wt%, producing nanofibers with diameters as low as 130 nm. Scaling factors determined from plots of fiber diameter vs. concentration were consistent with increased ionic aggregation as copolymer zwitterionic content increased.
 

General Papers
2:00 PM-4:20 PM, Sunday, April 6, 2008 Hilton New Orleans Riverside -- Grand Salon 4, Oral

Division of Polymer Chemistry

The 235th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 6-10, 2008