Dehydroalanine homo ve kopolimerlerinin antibakteriyel malzeme ve biyouyumlu nanopartikül kaplamalar olarak geliştirilmesi

The research presented here focuses on the polymers of 2-acetamidoacrylic acid which is a captodative monomer, an amino acid derivative and a compound existing in natural antibiotics. Three important properties of this compound were investigated: reactivity in copolymerization with commercial monomers such as methacrylic acid and acrylonitrile, antimicrobial activity of its homo and copolymers and its applicability to quantum dots as a biocompatible coating.The bacterial contamination is a great concern where polymeric materials are widely used such as medical devices, healthcare products, food packaging, textiles, etc. Therefore, last two decades have witnessed a significant increase in efforts to develop antibacterial polymers in order to overcome the microbial colonization. Research presented here investigates the antimicrobial potential of poly (2-acetamidoacrylic acid) and its copolymers with methacrylic acid (MAA) and acrylonitrile (AN). Both MAA and AN are widely used commercial monomers for a variety of applications from fibers to contact lenses. These copolymerizations provided the reactivity ratios between these monomers as well.Quantum dots (QDs) have attracted tremendous attention as an emerging tool for biomedical applications. Even though quantum dots are still controversial due to their high cytotoxicity, they have tremendous potential as fluorescent probes for early detection of cancer and also for drug delivery. Research presented in this dissertation addresses the need for improvement of aqueous stability and cytotoxity of quantum dots along with improved luminescent properties. In order to achieve this goal, cysteine which is one of the most popular biocompatible coatings for QDs and 3-MPA (3-mercaptopropionic acid) which is probably the most used QD coating material was evaluated as a co-stabilizer in the CdS synthesis along with Poly(2-acetamidoacrylic acid).