Multifunctional coatings of phenolic phytocompounds of medical interest: Assembly methods and applications

Abstract

The development of new natural phenolic-enable nanotechnologies with multifunctional purposes is related to the exceptional physicochemical properties conferred by the phenolic moieties. Phenolic phytocompounds can oxidize and self-polymerize to assemble on surfaces and form diverse coatings. They interact either in non-covalent or covalent form with several inorganic, organic and bioactive materials and lead to electrostatic and metal coordination, hydrogen bonds and π interactions. Other properties such as pH responsiveness, redox potentials, radical scavenging and light absorbance are also relevant and have made them a distinct class of structural motifs for the development of coatings. These interesting interactions confer them antioxidative and antimicrobial properties, as well as adhesiveness, ultraviolet absorption and nucleophilic reactivity suitable for diverse surface requests. Different assembly methods and main applications of the coatings, appropriate for diverse medical applications are reviewed here. These new platforms are presented as an alternative to the excessive use of antibiotics, and thus preventing the development of drug-resistant strains, and to provide low cost, environmentally friendly, and easy to apply multifunctional coatings of medical interest.