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Updated: May 24, 2026

Fabricating Superhydrophobic Polymeric Materials for Biomedical Applications
Published on: August 28, 2015
Porous polysulfone coatings for enhanced drug delivery
Kartik M Sivaraman1, Christoph Kellenberger, Salvador Pané
1Multi Scale Robotics Lab, Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems-IRIS, ETH Zurich, Zurich 8092, Switzerland. kartiks@ethz.ch
Abstract:
The synthesis of a porous polysulfone (PSU) coating for use in drug delivery applications is presented. PSU can serve as a functional surface coating for drug delivery vehicles, such as intraocular biomicrorobots. The coatings can be applied using spin coating or dip coating. The porosity is introduced by selectively dissolving calcium carbonate nanoparticles embedded in the bulk polymer. The network of pores thus formed increases by a factor of thirty the amount of Rhodamine B (model drug) that can be loaded and by a factor of fifteen the amount that can be released. The films do not affect cell viability and exhibit poor cell adhesion. The straightforward synthesis and predictability of porosity enables the tuning of the amount of drug that can be loaded.
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