Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0047, Japan.
Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan.
Biomacromolecules. 2021 Jun 14;22(6):2505-2514. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.1c00247. Epub 2021 May 3.
Concentrated polymer brushes (CPBs) are known to suppress biofouling phenomena, such as protein adsorption and cell adhesion. However, a cumbersome process is needed for their synthesis. Here, we report a simple and versatile method for fabricating nonbiofouling coatings that uses well-defined bottlebrushes instead of CPBs. First, a macroinitiator, poly[2-(2-bromoisobutyryloxy)ethyl methacrylate] (PBIEM), was synthesized by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization. Then, poly[poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate] was grafted from PBIEM through atom transfer radical polymerization to form well-defined bottlebrushes. By controlling the graft chain length, two types of bottlebrushes could be prepared, namely those with a semi-dilute polymer brush (SDPB) structure or a CPB structure on the surface of the outermost layer. Crosslinked films of the bottlebrushes were prepared on silicon wafers by spin-coating and subsequent radical coupling. Importantly, the CPB-type bottlebrush films showed significantly better nonbiofouling characteristics than those of the SDPB-type bottlebrush films.
浓缩聚合物刷（CPB）已知可以抑制生物污垢现象，如蛋白质吸附和细胞黏附。然而，其合成需要繁琐的过程。在这里，我们报告了一种使用结构明确的梳状聚合物而不是 CPB 来制备非生物污垢涂层的简单而通用的方法。首先，通过可逆加成-断裂链转移聚合合成大分子引发剂聚[2-(2-溴异丁酰氧基)乙基甲基丙烯酸酯]（PBIEM）。然后，通过原子转移自由基聚合将聚[聚（乙二醇）甲基醚甲基丙烯酸酯]接枝到 PBIEM 上，形成结构明确的梳状聚合物。通过控制接枝链长度，可以制备出两种类型的梳状聚合物，即表面具有半浓聚合物刷（SDPB）结构或最外层具有 CPB 结构的梳状聚合物。通过旋涂和随后的自由基偶联，将梳状聚合物在硅片上制备成交联膜。重要的是，CPB 型梳状聚合物膜表现出比 SDPB 型梳状聚合物膜更好的抗生物污垢特性。
