Nonfouling Response of Hydrophilic Uncharged Polymers

Abstract

IntroductionFouling impairs the function of all structures immersed in seawater, including ship hulls, aquaculture nets, and static structures. Prevention of marine fouling represents an unsolved challenge with the potential for huge savings in terms of reduced energy consumption due to reduced frictional drag losses and weight, as well as increased life-time and maintenance intervals for exposed components. [ 1 , 2 ] The high level of complexity in the biointerfacial processes involved in biofouling, and the many different length and time scales [ 3 ] involved, characterize the diffi culty in fi nding the most appropriate solution to the problem. Several strategies have been used in order to control fouling in the marine environment: besides a number of approaches to simplify the process of mechanical removal of the formed deposits, the use of antifouling paints incorporating biocides [ 4 ] is the most commonly employed approach. However, strategies that aim at the generation of passive, non-interacting, non-adhesive surface structures or coatings [ 5 ] are gaining more and more importance, and information gained from materials designed to combat fouling by proteins or biomedically important microorganisms are aiding the development of environmentally benign marine coatings. [ 6 ] The use of hydrophilic and uncharged polymers is often considered as a possible approach, and it has been shown that brush-forming polymers displaying hydration properties, that is, the capability to bind water around the polymer chain, [ 7 , 8 ] can be used to reduce the uptake of biological entities (e.g., macromolecules, cells, larvae) under various conditions. For example, the settlement (attachment) of zoospores of the marine alga Ulva linza and diatoms (unicellular slime-forming algae) and the adsorption of various proteins (fi brinogen, myoglobin, albumin, or full blood serum) have been shown to be signifi cantly reduced on poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-coated surfaces, [ 6 , 9 , 10 ] as well as on polymeric coatings incorporating PEGylated moieties; [11][12][13] the polymer poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) (PEOXA) has been studied as a liposomal surface modifi er for drug-delivery vesicles with an effi ciency similar to PEG, [ 14 ] but has also been shown to be resistant to bovine serum albumin (BSA) adsorption; [ 15 ] poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) has been shown to decrease fouling by lysozyme, BSA and fi brinogen; [16][17][18] poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was found to be effective in reducing the adhesion of the diatom Amphora coffeaeformis independently of the shear rate the surfaces were subjected to, [ 19 ] and as a gel has been shown to reduce barnacle attachment; [ 20 , 21 ] and dextran has shown the ability to reduce adsorption of human-serum proteins. [ 22 , 23 ] Nonfouling Response of Hydrophilic Uncharged PolymersPolymeric ultrathin fi lms present a possible line of attack against marine biofouling for some applications. A protocol that provides a reliable comparison of the resistance of different polymers to biofouling ...

Molecular Design of Antifouling Polymer Brushes Using Sequence‐Specific Peptoids

“… 46 Consequently, many antifouling polymer brushes that can resist mammalian cell attachment are unable to resist fouling by at least some bacteria strains. 47 To further help discern possible differences between the sequence designs, the experiments were performed at an intermediate chain density (0.3 ± 0.015 chain nm –2 ) that was only expected to partially resist bacteria attachment.…”

Bottom-Up Fabrication of PEG Brush on Poly(dimethylsiloxane) for Antifouling Surface Construction

“…The PEG with active ending groups can be coupled to the surface via chemical grafting. However, the PEGylated surface fabricated from "graft-to" method only renders short term effects on antifouling, which may be due to the sparseness and irregular arrangement of the PEG chains [10,11]. The favorable antifouling surface calls for the well-defined PEG coating techniques.…”

Repelling and ordering: the influence of poly(ethylene glycol) on protein adsorption

“…[1][2][3][4][5] A common approach to obtain protein repellent, or so-called anti-fouling, coatings relies on the use of hydrophilic or zwitterionic materials. [6][7][8] Among these materials poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is a widely used and thoroughly studied hydrophilic protein repelling polymer. 9 Surfaces that make use of different PEGylation strategies, namely block copolymers, [10][11][12] self-assembled monolayers on gold [13][14][15] or phospholipids, [16][17][18] have been widely used to control, localize or entirely prevent protein adsorption.…”