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Repetitive Bacterial Disinfection of Respirators by Polydopamine Coating

Authors :
Yuri Jeong
Kyueui Lee
Source :
Applied Sciences, Vol 12, Iss 17, p 8710 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2022.

Abstract

To solve the current and future mask shortage problems, developing methods of disinfecting respirators is essential, where none of the existing methods have been successfully utilized until recently. Herein, we introduce a novel method of conferring antibacterial activity to the main filtering material (i.e., polypropylene (PP)) of a respirator through sequential polydopamine (PDA) coatings. Two-step dip-coating in dopamine solution, which corresponds to one complete cycle, produces stable PDA films at the interface of the filtering material, which subsequently locally generates H2O2 that can be further transformed into hydroxyl radicals to inactivate pathogens. Specifically, the primary dip-coating creates a scaffold PDA film that acts as a mechanical support, and anchoring dopamine, which substantially produces H2O2, is immobilized to the scaffold PDA during the subsequent secondary dip-coating process. The antibacterial activity was confirmed by bacterial tests using Escherichia coli. In short, the number of colonies after incubation of the polypropylene filter with and without the PDA coating in the bacterial solution was compared. The number of bacteria in the PDA-coated sample (0.54 × 109 CFU/mL·cm2) was significantly reduced compared to that in the original PP sample (0.81 × 109 CFU/mL·cm2), demonstrating a positive relationship with the H2O2 production. Moreover, this antibacterial ability can be maintained by simply utilizing additional PDA coatings, suggesting that the respirators can be recycled. Finally, the in vitro cytotoxicity was confirmed by the CCK-8 assay, which demonstrated that the PDA-coated PP filter is biocompatible. We believe that the newly proposed method for disinfection of respirators may substitute conventional methods and can be used to alleviate the mask shortage problem.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20763417
Volume :
12
Issue :
17
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Applied Sciences
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.1b75b0d4072e425081feaed4259bcb22
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/app12178710