POLYCATIONS - III - SYNTHESIS OF POLYPHOSPHONIUM SALTS FOR USE AS ANTIBACTERIAL AGENTS

Seveval series of polyphosphonium salts have been prepared. these incl ude those in which the cationic sites ave located at regular intervals along a linear chain of defined length (''strings'') and those in whi ch the cationic sites ave in linkages arrayed in branching arms about a central focus unit (''balloons''). Similarly, polyphosphonium balloo n arrays have been attached to a polystyrene backbone providing a mate rial that can serve as an anionic exchange resin. Several of the resul tant materials have demonstrated antibacterial activity, in systems an alogous to those previously reported for simple functionalized polysty rene species, and continue to be investigated. (C) 1998 John Wiley & S ons, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 9:495-502, 1998.