Immobilization of antibacterial metallic cations (Ga3+, Zn2+ and Co2+) in a polypyrrole coating formed on Nitinol

Abstract

Gallium, zinc and cobalt species were immobilized in hollow rectangular-sectioned microtubes of polypyrrole(PPy) electrosynthesized on Nitinol (NiTi) alloy by means of two different methods. One of them involved theimmobilization after the PPy electropolymerization and the other one during the electrosynthesis process. Theantibacterial activity of the coating against Escherichia coli (E. coli) was evaluated and the best results wereobtained with gallium species. Characterization results demonstrated that gallium is incorporated into the PPymatrix as Ga3+ ions. The PPy film with gallium species incorporated during the electropolymerization exhibiteda good corrosion protection performance.