High-Antifouling Polymer Brush Coatings on Nonpolar Surfaces via Adsorption-Cross-Linking Strategy

A new "adsorption-cross-linking" technology is presented to generate a highly dense polymer brush coating on various nonpolar substrates, including the most inert and low-energy surfaces of poly(dimethylsiloxane) and poly(tetrafluoroethylene). This prospective surface modification strategy is based on a tailored bifunctional amphiphilic block copolymer with benzophenone units as the hydrophobic anchor/chemical cross-linker and terminal azide groups for in situ postmodification. The resulting polymer brushes exhibited long-term and ultralow protein adsorption and cell adhesion benefiting from the high density and high hydration ability of polyglycerol blocks. The presented antifouling brushes provided a highly stable and robust bioinert background for biospecific adsorption of desired proteins and bacteria after secondary modification with bioactive ligands, e.g., mannose for selective ConA and Escherichia coli binding.