Conjugated microporous polymers bearing isocyanurate moiety as efficient antibacterial membrane and aerogels

Abstract The development of high-performance antibacterial materials is of great importance for human survival and health. Herein, we report the exploitation of novel conjugated microporous polymers bearing isocyanurate moiety (I-CMPs), which were synthesized using trichloroisocyanuric acid and ethynylbenzene as building blocks via Sonogashira-Hagihara cross-coupling condensation reaction, as efficient antibacterial materials. The as-resulted I-CMPs exhibit excellent antimicrobial activity both for gram-positive and gram-negative strains, e.g., The MBC value of I-CMPs is 250 μg·ml−1 that is the growth of E. coli and S. aureus could be inhibited entirely after 2 h treatment. The mechanism of the antibacterial process was preliminarily discussed. Furthermore, I-CMPs can be synthesized as monolithic nanofoam or free-standing film by facile varying the synthesis conditions for filtration or sterilization, e.g., E. coli in water (103 cfu·ml−1) could be captured entirely and quickly killed by filtration with I-CMPs monolithic nanofoam, which is of great technological significance with remarkable potentials for practical applications. These findings may also open a new route to rational design and creation of functional CMPs films or monolithic nanofoam with antimicrobial activity for a particular purpose.