Fabrication of urushiol-based antimicrobial material and its application to ABS-composite with antimicrobial activity

Abstract

We suggested simple polymerization methods of lacquer sap to fabricate the urushiol powder with sufficient antimicrobial activity and thermal stability. Additionally, the urushiol-ABS composite was prepared by coating urushiol powder on ABS surface. This method maximizes the antimicrobial property and minimizes the degradation of mechanical properties of ABS resin. Urushiol which is main component of lacquer sap has good properties such as good durability, thermal stability and antimicrobial activity. However, practical use of liquid urushiol has a difficulty due to the allege reaction of skin. To overcome these limitation, we polymerized lacquer sap by laccase-catalyzed reaction or adding heat under three specific conditions. Also, the produced urushiol powders were analyzed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), optical microscope (OM) and antimicrobial test against Gram-positive bacteria such as S.aureus. The urushiol powders exhibited 99.99% antimicrobial activity and high thermal stability to be used as plastic additives. Two types of urushiol-ABS composite were produced by mixing the urushiol powder with ABS or coating on ABS surface with the urushiol powder. In addition, we demonstrated that the urushiol-ABS composites could be used as antimicrobial interior material of electronics by analyzation of their mechanical and antimicrobial properties.