Fluorinated zwitterionic polymers as dynamic surface coatings

Abstract

Polymer modification of metallic and inorganic substrates represents an important strategy to determine key surface properties, including wetting, adhesion, and biomolecular interactions. The versatility of polymer chemistry and surface-grafting techniques has enabled the preparation of a wide array of functional surfaces that exhibit enhanced utility relative to pristine, unmodified materials. However, despite recent progress, discovering new polymer compositions for surface modification is essential to address ongoing challenges related to surface properties and functional interfaces. This manuscript describes surface grafting using fluorinated polymer zwitterions by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP). The resultant polymer-coated substrates exhibited wetting characteristics intermediate between those of zwitterionic and fluorinated polymer brushes, with unusually large contact angle hysteresis values that are indicative of polymer response to the contacting fluid. Notably, surfaces functionalized with fluorinated polymer zwitterions exhibited impressive resistance to protein fouling with bovine serum albumin (BSA) and lysozyme.