The influence of the surface properties of silicon-fluorine hydrogel on protein adsorption

A range of fluorinated hydrogels were synthesized using the copolymerization of 1, 1, 1, 3, 3, 3-hexafluoroisopropyl methacrylate (HFMA) or 1H, 1H, 7H-dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate (DFMA) with hydrophilic monomers. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) and Lysozyme (LZM) were chosen as model proteins to investigate the performance of protein adsorption on the surface of these fluorinated hydrogels. It was found that the performance of the fluorinated hydrogels toward protein adsorption was different for different proteins; simultaneously, the amount of protein adsorption was related to but not linear with the fluorine content on the hydrogel surface. With increasing HFMA content, the mass of BSA adsorption increased in the first stage and then decreased, meanwhile the mass of LZM adsorption exhibited an upward trend in general. In addition, the amount of protein adsorption was also related to the type and length of the fluorinated groups. The hydrogels made from DFMA behaved better than HFMA hydrogels in terms of reducing protein adsorption. This study might provide further reference in choosing fluorine monomer to prepare protein-repelling hydrogels.