Poly(ionic liquid)s as antimicrobial materials

Abstract

In the last few years, efforts to broaden PILs properties, structures, functionalities, and applications have grown rapidly. One of their interesting potential uses is as antimicrobial systems, due to their versatility and capacity to be adjusted in different morphologies, sizes, and surface charges. This review gathers the recent advances in antimicrobial materials based on PILs. Initially, the synthesis of PILs with antimicrobial activity, showing the influence of the chemical structure, whether is cationic or anionic and their corresponding counter-ions, is pointed out. Equally, most of these PILs present modest mechanical performance that turn researchers to overcome it by grafting them to different surfaces, crosslinked with other monomers or by simple blending with polymers. Moreover, the nature of PILs makes them regulators of size and shape of inorganic antimicrobial particles, enhancing their effectivity.