title: Zwitterionic modification of polyurethane membranes for enhancing the anti-fouling property.
abstract: Polyurethane (PU) is a biopolymer that has been commonly used for biomedical applications. However, the biofouling phenomenon on the hydrophobic PU surface is one of the crucial issues that embarrassing its applications. Here, we report a facile & efficient approach to improve the anti-biofouling ability of the PU substrates. Active residues were firstly generated on the PU surface by using the low temperature air-plasma treatment, promoting the immobilization of the atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) initiators on the surface. Then, three types of zwitterionic polymer brushes, as well as PEG brushes, have been fabricated on the PU substrates through surface-initiated ATRP (SI-ATRP). Robust surface characterizations that capable of revealing the surface chemistry (including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and wettability tests), and antifouling evaluations of the PU substrates (protein adsorption, platelet adhesion, and cell adhesion measurements) were performed. Results showed that three types of zwitterionic brushes have been successful grafted on the PU surface, respectively. And the three types of zwitterionic brushes, in general, significantly inhibited the protein adsorption, the platelet adhesion, and the cell adhesion on the PU surface, endowing a significantly improved anti-fouling ability to the PU substrates. Furthermore, we found that this facial zwitterionic surface modification did not compromise the mechanical property of the PU substrates. This strategy could be easily exploited to PU-based biomaterials to improve their performance in many applications.
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Biomedical Functional Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Bio-functional Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Peiming
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Biomedical Functional Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Bio-functional Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Biomedical Functional Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Bio-functional Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: liups@njnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Pingsheng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Biomedical Functional Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Bio-functional Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Shufeng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Biomedical Functional Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Bio-functional Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Biomedical Functional Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Bio-functional Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China; School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China. Electronic address: jshen@njnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D057219:Biofouling / Q000517:prevention & control*; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D015394:Molecular Structure; D010316:Particle Size; D011140:Polyurethanes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013499:Surface Properties; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D011140:Polyurethanes
keywords: Anti-fouling; Mechanical property; PU membrane; SI-ATRP; Zwitterionic polymers