title: Salt-responsive polyzwitterionic materials for surface regeneration between switchable fouling and antifouling properties.
abstract: Development of smart regenerative surface is a highly challenging but important task for many scientific and industrial applications. Specifically, very limited research efforts were made for surface regeneration between bio-adhesion and antifouling properties, because bioadhesion and antifouling are the two highly desirable but completely opposite properties of materials. Herein, we developed salt-responsive polymer brushes of poly(3-(1-(4-vinylbenzyl)-1H-imidazol-3-ium-3-yl) propane-1-sulfonate) (polyVBIPS), which can be switched reversibly and repeatedly between protein capture/release and surface wettability in a controllable manner. PolyVBIPS brush has demonstrated its switching ability to resist both protein adsorption from 100% blood plasma/serum and bacterial attachment in multiple cycles. PolyVBIPS brush also exhibits reversible surface wettability from ∼40° to 25° between in PBS and in 1M NaCl solutions in multiple cycles. Overall, the salt-responsive behaviors of polyVBIPS brushes can be interpreted by the "anti-polyelectrolyte effect", i.e. polyVBIPS brushes adopt a collapsed chain conformation at low ionic strengths to achieve surface adhesive, but an extended chain conformation at high ionic strength to realize antifouling properties. We expect that polyVBIPS will provide a simple, robust, and promising system for the fabrication of smart surfaces with biocompatible, reliable, and regenerative properties.
  
  
  
  Unlike many materials with "one-time switching" capability for surface regeneration, we developed a new regenerative surface of zwitterionic polymer brush, which exhibits a reversible salt-induced switching property between a biomolecule-adhesive state and a biomolecule repellent state in complex media for multiple cycles. PolyVBIPS is easily synthesized and can be straightforward coated on the surface, which provides a simple, robust, and promising system for the fabrication of smart surfaces with biocompatible, reliable, regenerative properties.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: College of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China.
authors.forename: Jintao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: College of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China.
authors.forename: Shengwei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA.
authors.forename: Rundong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA.
authors.forename: Sarang M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Bhaway
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA.
authors.forename: Bryan D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Vogt
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA.
authors.forename: Mingzhen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA; School of Material Science and Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454003, China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA; State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA; R&D Center for Membrane Technology and Department of Chemical Engineering, Chung Yuan University, 200 Chung Pei Road, Chung Li, Taoyuan 32023, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yung
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA.
authors.forename: Lingyan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA. Electronic address: zhengj@uakron.edu.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zheng
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism*; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D001798:Blood Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D020099:Coated Materials, Biocompatible / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D017155:Wettability
chemical_list: D001798:Blood Proteins; D020099:Coated Materials, Biocompatible; D011108:Polymers
keywords: Antifouling; Bacterial attachment; Protein adsorption; Regenerative surface; Stimuli-responsive; Zwitterionic materials