Preparation of bromo-substituted polyaniline with excellent antibacterial activity

Bromo-substituted polyaniline (Br-PANI) is prepared by a novel strategy in which PANI is used as raw material, potassium bromate and potassium bromide as brominate regents. The obtained Br-PANI is characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, elemental analysis, FTIR, UV–vis spectra, and TGA. The results clearly indicate that Br has successfully attached to the benzene ring of PANI by chemical bond. The behavior of Br-PANI toward bacteria is characterized by plate counting, minimal inhibitory concentration, and minimal bactericidal concentration methods. The experimental results indicate that both doped and dedoped Br-PANIs have long-term antibacterial activities as compared to doped/dedoped PANI. What's more, the antibacterial abilities increase with increasing the Br/N molar ratio of the Br-PANI. Thus Br-PANI should be a kind of efficient and environmentally friendly antibacterial agent. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 45657.