Synthesis and Applications of Antibacterial N-Halamine Polymers and Nanomaterials

N-halamine antibacterial materials have aroused scientists' great interest due to their unique properties, such as powerful antibacterial activity, long term stability, effectiveness toward a broad spectrum of microorganisms, regenerability upon exposure to washing cycles, safety to humans and environment. In this review, recent development is summarized by discussing the synthesis and applications of N-halamine antibacterial polymers and N-halamine antibacterial nanomaterials. Three main approaches, of preparation of N-halamine polymers are given; polymerization of N-halamine monomers; grafting N-halamine monomers onto polymer surfaces; others ( blending, coating, electrospinning, etc. ). Antibacterial performance of N-halamine materials strongly depends on their surface area, and thus nano-sized N-halamines exhibit high antibacterial activity due to the large activated surface area. So the research progress and developing trend of N-halamine nanomaterials are emphatically introduced. The subsequent development and application prospect of N-halamine antibacterial materials are also discussed.