Copolymer synthesis of N-halamine containing vinyl monomer with antimicrobial property.

• Main Author: Tan, Jinhui.
• Other Authors: Susanna Leong Su Jan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Chemical engineering::Biotechnological production
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/16524
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The N-halamine moiety has been widely researched in medical field for its anti-microbial property against micro-organisms. Leveraging on this property, this project aims to incorporate the N-halamine moiety into a copolymer that will be woven into fabrics to protect our soldiers against micro-organisms and harmful chemical agents. A radical copolymerization mechanism was adopted with 5,5-Dimethylhydantoin, a hydantoin derivative, as the starting material and 2,2’-Azobisisobutyronitrile as the initiator. Pre-requisite to the copolymerization process, Ally Bromide was used to react with the starting material to obtain the monomer required. Various parameters, such as temperature, duration, initiator to monomer ratio, co-monomer to monomer ratio, types of solvent, co-monomer and initiator, were investigated during the optimisation process for the adopted mechanism. Results had shown that copolymerization with Acrylonitrile for six hours at 90C in Dimethyl Sulphoxide/Water mixture produced an optimal amount of copolymer with a grafting ratio of around 6-8%. The ratio of the components was set at 0.1 mol of initiator to 10 mol of co-monomer to 1 mol of the monomer. Chlorination using Sodium Hypochlorite solution was carried out subsequently on the copolymers to convert the hydantoins to halamines. Approximately 25% of the grafted ADMH in the copolymers were chlorinated in 0.903M of Sodium Hypochlorite for 4 hours. In addition, compounds synthesized were characterised using Elemental Analysis, Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Fourier Transform Infra Red and Differential Scanning Calorimetric analysis.