title: Centrifugal deposition of microgels for the rapid assembly of nonfouling thin films.
abstract: Thin films assembled from microgel building blocks have been constructed using a simple, high-throughput, and reproducible centrifugation (or "active") deposition technique. When compared to a common passive adsorption method (e.g., dip coating), microgels that are actively deposited onto a surface have smaller footprints and are more closely packed. Under both active and passive deposition conditions, the microgel footprint areas decrease during deposition. However, under active deposition, the microgel footprint appears to decrease continually and to a greater degree over the course of the deposition, forming a tightly packed, homogeneous film. Taking advantage of the rapid and uniform assembly of these films, we demonstrate the use of active deposition toward the fabrication of polyelectrolyte multilayers containing anionic microgels and a cationic linear polymer. Microgel multilayers successfully demonstrated effective blocking of the underlying substrate toward macrophage adhesion, which is a highly sought-after property for modulating the inflammatory response to an implanted biomaterial.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
authors.forename: Antoinette B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: South
authors.forename: Rachel E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Whitmire
authors.forename: Andrés J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: García
authors.forename: L Andrew
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Lyon
mesh_terms: D057219:Biofouling; D002498:Centrifugation / Q000379:methods*; D005782:Gels / Q000737:chemistry*; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D005782:Gels