title: Spin-Casting Polymer Brush Films for Stimuli-Responsive and Anti-Fouling Surfaces.
abstract: Surfaces modified with amphiphilic polymers can dynamically alter their physicochemical properties in response to changes of their environmental conditions; meanwhile, amphiphilic polymer coatings with molecular hydrophilic and hydrophobic patches, which can mitigate biofouling effectively, are being actively explored as advanced coatings for antifouling materials. Herein, a series of well-defined amphiphilic asymmetric polymer brushes containing hetero side chains, hydrophobic polystyrene (PS) and hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), was employed to prepare uniform thin films by spin-casting. The properties of these films were investigated by water contact angle, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). AFM showed smooth surfaces for all films with the roughness less than 2 nm. The changes in water contact angle and C/O ratio (XPS) evidenced the enrichment of PEG or PS chains at film surface after exposed to selective solvents, indicative of stimuli- responsiveness. The adsorption of proteins on PEG functionalized surface was quantified by QCM and the results verified that amphiphilic polymer brush films bearing PEG chains could lower or eliminate protein-material interactions and resist to protein adsorption. Cell adhesion experiments were performed by using HaCaT cells and it was found that polymer brush films possess good antifouling ability.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Self-Assembly Chemistry for Organic Functional Molecules, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 345 Lingling Road, Shanghai 200032, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Binbin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Self-Assembly Chemistry for Organic Functional Molecules, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 345 Lingling Road, Shanghai 200032, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jianhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology , 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai 200237, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Guangxin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University , 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Self-Assembly Chemistry for Organic Functional Molecules, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 345 Lingling Road, Shanghai 200032, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D056951:Photoelectron Spectroscopy; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols / Q000737:chemistry*; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry*; D058525:Quartz Crystal Microbalance Techniques; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011137:Polystyrenes; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols; C000595209:polyethylene glycol 1000
keywords: antifouling; polymer brush; spin-casting; stimuli-responsive; thin film