Ionic materials have been explored for a wide range of applications from drug delivery to regenerative medicine. Quaternary ammonium salts in particular have been extensively studied as antimicrobial agents and electrostatic drug delivery vehicles. Quaternary phosphonium cations, carrying positive charges at phosphorus atoms, exhibit different charge distributions than their ammonium counterparts, and have been shown to have enhanced performance over their ammonium counterparts in areas including antimicrobial activity and nucleic acid binding. However, they have been much less explored. This presentation will describe our team’s recent work in the development of phosphonium biomaterials. The design and synthesis of antibacterial phosphonium polymers will be described, along with their incorporation onto surfaces to afford non-fouling, antibacterial coatings (Fig. 1A). Phosphonium polymer networks were also prepared, using both ionic and covalent cross-linking approaches, and were characterized by rheology to reveal interesting dynamic and self-healing behaviour (Fig. 1B). Finally, the incorporation of ionic drugs into the networks and their release were also studied. The properties of the phosphonium materials were compared directly to their ammonium analogues. Overall, this work shows the strong potential for the further development of phosphonium polymer materials as therapeutics and therapeutic delivery vehicles.

Phosphonium biomaterials: From antibiotics to ionic hydrogels

2019 Fall National Meeting

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