Azobenzene quaternary ammonium salt for photo-controlled and reusable disinfection without drug resistance

摘要

The abuse of antibiotics causes severe bacterial resistance, and the shortage of antibiotics has created a global public health crisis. This situation has prompted people to develop new antibacterial agents independent of traditional antibiotics. Here, we created a series of photosensitive azobenzene-quaternary ammonium salt smart antibacterial agents by connecting azobenzene with amines with different chain lengths to improve the antibacterial selectivity of quaternary ammonium salt(QAS) and prevent the accumulation of active QAS in the environment. After trans-cis isomerization, the solubility of the title compound(compound 4) increased and the antibacterial property enhanced. The experimental results suggested that the antibacterial effect of compound 4 was significantly enhanced after 365 nm light irradiation, and it had photosensitive intelligent antibacterial activity and could be reused. Notably, we did not obtain any mutants of Staphylococcus aureus or Escherichia coli resistant to compound 4. In general,compound 4 has the advantages of high yield, photo-controllable antibacterial properties, reusability, and does not induce bacterial resistance. This photosensitive antibacterial compound provides a new idea for the construction of intelligent disinfectants and is expected to be a candidate for disinfectants in public facilities and medical architecture.