Antibacterial coatings have been considered as an effective method for preventing the implant-associated infections caused by the bacterial colonization. In this study, we report a water-insoluble polyelectrolyte–surfactant complex, poly­(hexamethylene biguanide) hydrochloride–sodium stearate (PHMB–SS) that can be facilely coated onto the surfaces of biomedical catheter and kill the bacteria by releasing the PHMB and prevent the generation of the biofilm. The PHMB–SS-coated surfaces showed better bactericidal activity toward Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The PHMB–SS-coated catheters could not only relatively prevent the bacterial colonization in vitro but also in an implant-associated bacterial infection animal model in vivo. Moreover, no significant cytotoxicity and host response were observed in vitro and in vivo, indicating the high biocompatibility of the coating. The water-insoluble antibacterial coating reported in this work represents a novel approach to build a simple and effective coating for the prevention of device-associated infections.

Recently, although several unconventional luminescent polymers have been synthesized, it still remains a significant challenge to prepare various new fluorescent polymers by functionalization of nonfluorescent polymers. A nonfluorescent 1 H,1 H,2 H,2 H-perfluoro-1-decanol grafted to nonfluorescent polystyrene- b-poly(acrylic acid) block copolymers through simply esterification reaction can exhibit strong blue emission. On the basis of control experiments and theoretical simulation, we have proposed that the luminescence stems from interchain n → π* interaction between the lone pair (n) of hydroxyl O atoms of carboxyl units and empty π* orbital of ester carbonyl unit. In addition, the fluorescent polymers are successfully employed for fluorescence imaging in living HeLa cell.