Nonbiofouling Coatings Using Bottlebrushes with Concentrated Polymer Brush Architecture

Area of Science:

• Polymer Chemistry
• Materials Science
• Surface Science

Background:

• Concentrated polymer brushes (CPBs) are effective at preventing biofouling but are difficult to synthesize.
• Developing simpler methods for creating effective anti-biofouling surfaces is crucial for various applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a simple and versatile method for fabricating nonbiofouling coatings using well-defined bottlebrush polymers.
• To compare the anti-biofouling performance of coatings with different polymer brush structures.

Main Methods:

• Synthesized a macroinitiator, poly[2-(2-bromoisobutyryloxy)ethyl methacrylate] (PBIEM), using reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization.
• Grafted poly[poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate] from PBIEM via atom transfer radical polymerization to create bottlebrush polymers.
• Prepared crosslinked bottlebrush films on silicon wafers via spin-coating and radical coupling, controlling graft chain length to achieve semi-dilute polymer brush (SDPB) or CPB structures.

Main Results:

• Successfully synthesized well-defined bottlebrush polymers with tunable structures (SDPB and CPB).
• Fabricated crosslinked films of these bottlebrush polymers on silicon wafers.
• Demonstrated that CPB-type bottlebrush films exhibited significantly superior nonbiofouling properties compared to SDPB-type films.

Conclusions:

• A simple and versatile method for fabricating nonbiofouling coatings using bottlebrush polymers has been established.
• The structure of the polymer brush (CPB vs. SDPB) significantly impacts nonbiofouling performance.
• Bottlebrush polymer coatings offer a promising alternative to traditional CPBs for suppressing biofouling.