Naalg

The monomers N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) and N-tert-butylacrylamide (NtBAM) were used as acquired by Fluorochem (Derbyshire, UK) and Alfa Aesar (Ward Hill, MA, USA), respectively. Potassium peroxodisulfate (KPS, Fluorochem, Derbyshire, UK), 2-aminoethanethiol hydrochloride (ET HCl, Alfa Aesar, Ward Hill, MA, USA), N-(3-Dimethylaminopropyl)-N′-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC, Alfa Aesar, Ward Hill, MA, USA) and 1-Hydroxybenzotriazole hydrate (HOBt, Fluka, NC, USA) were used as received. Dimethylformamide (DMF, Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA), hydrochloric acid (HCl, Panreac, IL, USA), sodium hydroxide (NaOH, Panreac, IL, USA), deuterated water (D₂O, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) and Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) were used as obtained by the provider without purification. Ultrapure water was received by an ELGA Medica-R7/15 device (ELGA Labwater, IL, USA).
Sodium alginate (NaALG, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA, no. 180947, molecular weight range: 120,000–190,000 g/mol, the ratio of mannuronic and guluronic units (M/G): 1.53) was further purified (a solution of 7% w/v NaALG in NaOH (0.005 M) was repeatedly purified by dialysis against ultrapure water (membrane MWCO: 12,000–14,000 Da), and the final NaALG product was obtained in its solid-state through lyophilization.

Sodium alginate (NaALG) of medium viscosity grade (5.0–40.0 cps, for 1% dispersion in purified water) with G/M units’ ratio 1:1 and previously characterized primary structure and molecular weight of 94,000–99,000 [42 (link)] was used as a polymer carrier (Sigma Aldrich, USA). Aqueous solutions of CuCl₂, ZnCl₂ and CaCl₂ were used as hardening agents (Penta, Czech Republic). Calibration solutions were prepared using a dilution of 1000 mg/L stock copper(II), zinc(II) and calcium(II) reference solvents (Analytika, Czech Republic). Deionized water with a resistivity of 18 MΩ was used for all necessary dilutions. Bacterial strains—Escherichia coli (E. coli) (CCM 4517) and Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) (field strain), the yeast strain—Candida albicans (C. albicans) (CCM 8186), the virus strain—human herpesvirus type 1 (HHV–1) (ATCC VR-539), and Vero cell line (ATCC CCL-81) in DMEM medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) were used for microbiological evaluation.