[MCResonance]

Hi everyone,

I am new to ChemicalForums, and I hope I am following the rules correctly. I have come across some articles that talked about the addition of methylene blue (MB) to polyvinyl chloride catheters to help sterilize them. I was wondering whether or not a surface (not just PVC, but most polymers) could be plasma-treated (coated in oxygen) to then form covalent bonds with methylene blue.

I am not sure how to use the [Insert Image] or [Insert SMILES] buttons, but the basic form of MB can be found on Wikipedia. From what I understand, the part of the MB structure that converts triplet oxygen to singlet oxygen is the S+. By coordinating to MB, the energy of singlet oxygen is lowered and becomes more stabilized than triplet oxygen. Singlet oxygen is able to donate its coupled electrons to MB, and this coordination energy compensates the coupling energy needed to transition from triplet to singlet.

So I'm supposing that leaves the rest of the structure to react with an oxygen-coated surface to form a covalent bond. Since the remainder of the structure is mostly benzene rings with N-2C substituents, I thought about using AlCl3 to attach the benzene part of the MB molecule to the oxygen and carbon surface of the plasma treated polymer surface.

I am still in college, so my knowledge of organic chemistry isn't great. I appreciate any help or suggestions (and probably even corrections) that you guys can provide.

For anyone interested, the title of the article is "Incorporation of methylene blue and nanogold into polyvinyl chloride catheters; a new approach for light-activated disinfection of surfaces." I would include a link, but I used my university library's database to view it, and it should not be relevant to my question.