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Updated: Apr 18, 2026

Preparation of Light-responsive Membranes by a Combined Surface Grafting and Postmodification Process
Published on: March 21, 2014
Transforming plastic surfaces with electrophilic backbones from hydrophobic to hydrophilic
Samuel Kim1, Raffick A R Bowen, Richard N Zare
1Department of Chemistry and ‡Department of Pathology, Stanford University , Stanford, California 94305, United States.
Abstract:
We demonstrate a simple nonaqueous reaction scheme for transforming the surface of plastics from hydrophobic to hydrophilic. The chemical modification is achieved by base-catalyzed trans-esterification with polyols. It is permanent, does not release contaminants, and causes no optical or mechanical distortion of the plastic. We present contact angle measurements to show successful modification of several types of plastics including poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and polycarbonate (PC). Its applicability to blood analysis is explored using chemically modified PET blood collection tubes and found to be quite satisfactory. We expect this approach will reduce the cost of manufacturing plastic devices with optimized wettability and can be generalized to other types of plastic materials having an electrophilic linkage as its backbone.
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