Antimicrobial Efficacy of Synthesized Quaternary Ammonium Polyamidoamine Dendrimers and Dendritic Polymer Network

Water treatment to mitigate microbial contaminants is a major challenge across globe paving the way to develop novel antimicrobial compounds. We aim at architecting antibacterial moiety eventually catering to vast water treatment industry. In this research study, quaternary ammonium functionalized polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer and PAMAM-ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) dendritic polymer network were synthesized. These materials were characterized by various analytical techniques like ATR-FTIR, 1HNMR, DSC etc. Water soluble generation (G) 1.0 PAMAM dendrimer and water insoluble PAMAM G1.0 EGDMA dendritic polymer network were quaternized by reacting with dilute hydrochloric acid (HCl) and octyl iodide (OI) respectively. Both quaternary ammonium dendrimer products were found to exhibit potent bactericidal activity against a group of common Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. 10 mg/L concentration of liquid PAMAM G1.0 QHCl was efficient to kill 100% bacteria rapidly within an incubation time of just 2 minutes. In addition, quaternary ammonium dendritic polymer network PAMAM G1.0-EGDMA Q OI demonstrated good contact killing antimicrobial property without releasing any active molecule into the surrounding medium and disinfected contaminated water within 5 minutes. Both quaternary ammonium dendrimer and dendritic polymer network showed negligible cytotoxicity in MTT assay indicating their potential as a viable antimicrobial agent.