Permanent antimicrobial silicone rubber based on bonding guanidine polymers

Recently, silicone rubber (VMQ) was extensively used in household articles and medical devices. To develop a kind of safe and long-term antimicrobial VMQ was of great significance. In this work, a kind of vinyl-contained polyhexamethylene guanidine hydrochloride (VPHMG) was synthesized and used as antimicrobial additive for VMQ. With the increasing of VPHMG addition, the mechanical properties and antimicrobial properties of VMQ-VPHMG were significantly improved. In particular, the antimicrobial rates against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were higher than 99.99% as for 4 wt% of VPHMG addition. Moreover, the surface concentration of VPHMG as well as the antimicrobial rates revealed almost unchanged after being extracted by water and methanol. All the results indicated the vinyl-contained VPHMG vulcanization and therefore provided the permanent antimicrobial performance for VMQ.