Biocidal activity of hydantoin-containing polyurethane polymeric surface modifiers

The preparation of a new hydantoin-containing polyurethane surface modifier has been enabled by the development of a hydantoin-oxetane monomer that co-polymerizes to polyoxetane telechelics by ring-opening polymerization. After solution blending the hydantoin-containing polymer surface modifiers (2 wt%) with a conventional polyurethane, coating a substrate, and treating with dilute hypochlorite (bleach), the surfaces were challenged with Gram −ve Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Gram +ve Staphylococcus aureus in AATCC-100 ‘sandwich’ and aerosol spray tests. Thirty-minute spray tests were used to establish concentrations at which overchallenges of the contact-kill surfaces occurred. These tests confirmed that no biocide release occurred under the test conditions. The spray test showed unambiguously the improved efficacy of biocidal action for a surface modifier with 5 mol% semifluorinated content compared to the non-fluorinated version.