Versatile Surface Modification Using Polydopamine and Related Polycatecholamines: Chemistry, Structure, and Applications

Abstract

Almost ten years ago, Lee et al. [13] formulated a universal adhesive coating based on observation of the strong attachment by mussels through their byssal threads to virtually all types of inorganic and organic surfaces. The amino acid compositions of the mussel foot proteins that generate the attachment are rich in catechol and amine groups. [13][14][15] These groups associate under marine conditions, forming strong covalent and noncovalent interactions with substrates. [13] This led to the idea that both catechol and amine groups were crucial in forming robust, wide spectrum adhesive nanolayers [16,17] and consequently dopamine was conceived as a powerful building block for spontaneous deposition of thin polymer films. The dopamine monomer is deposited onto unadulterated surfaces through self-assembly and oxidative cross-linking from mild pH aqueous solution in a rapid reaction. This results in a durable, nanoscale, conformal, and hydrophilic coating that can be readily modified to introduce specific surface chemistries for a particular application. [18][19][20][21][22] These bioinspired, polydopamine materials are chemically and structurally indistinguishable from eumelanins found in the human body, [23,24] providing excellent biocompatibility. Additionally, polydopamine has broad electromagnetic absorption and excellent photothermal energy conversion [25] as well as having ionic-electronic hybrid conductivity. [26] Along with the excellent coating performance, these properties provide a vast array of potential applications for polydopamine materials.In this article, we explain what is known about polydopamine and related catecholamine coatings; their formation, the adhesion mechanism, and their physicochemical properties and we also review the applications of these materials (Figure 1). Since 2011, there have been a number of reviews on this subject matter, including general reviews on the physicochemical properties of polydopamine coatings [11,20,[27][28][29] and their applications. [20,27,30] There are also a number of more specific reviews on the chemical synthesis and modulation of polycatecholamine coatings, [31] the biomedical applications of these coatings, [8,[32][33][34] their electronic properties, [26,35] the use of polydopamine to make films at fluid interfaces, [36] in hierarchically constructed particles, [33] and capsules, [30] exploitation of polycatecholamine coatings in membrane filtration, [37] polydopamine-derived carbon materials, [38] and the use of coordination chemistry in catechol-based materials. [39] Nonetheless, this area of research is growing so rapidly [25,27] that many recent Polydopamine and related polycatecholamines can be easily deposited onto almost any surface from mild, aqueous solution. This results in durable, nanoscale coatings that exhibit high biocompatibility and have useful chemical and electronic properties. Additionally, these materials can be readily chemically and physically modified, and consequently, they are used extensively for surface modification. This ...

Simple Coatings to Render Polystyrene Protein Resistant

“…et al [22,23]. Since then, a variety of dopamine-assisted grafting techniques and DOPA modified antifouling polymers have been tested to more securely attach antifouling polymers to substrate surfaces [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. The polydopamine layer not only readily adheres to most surfaces, but also provides a surface which allows various secondary reactions to take place and could therefore more easily enable the functionalization of material surfaces [22].…”

“…The polydopamine layer not only readily adheres to most surfaces, but also provides a surface which allows various secondary reactions to take place and could therefore more easily enable the functionalization of material surfaces [22]. The reactions the catechol group of dopamine undergoes with metals, thiols, and amines has led to many research groups favouring the inclusion of dopamine when treating these surfaces [8,22,[24][25][26]36]. While many DOPA-functionalised grafting-to methods have proved successful on the specific surfaces listed above, researchers have encountered fouling when trying the same approach for hydrophobic surfaces.…”

Synergistic Strengthening and Toughening the Interphase of Composites by Constructing Alternating “Rigid‐and‐Soft” Structure on Carbon Fiber Surface

“…[21][22][23][24][25] Moreover, PDA has dense aromatic structures in its molecular Interphase with nacre-like structured multilayer is constructed by alternatively depositing two polymers, respectively "rigid" polydopamine (PDA) and "flexible" polyether amine, on carbon fiber surface via the layer-by-layer (LbL) approach. [21][22][23][24][25] Moreover, PDA has dense aromatic structures in its molecular Interphase with nacre-like structured multilayer is constructed by alternatively depositing two polymers, respectively "rigid" polydopamine (PDA) and "flexible" polyether amine, on carbon fiber surface via the layer-by-layer (LbL) approach.…”

Interfacial Thermoreversible Chemistry on Functional Coatings: A Focus on the Diels–Alder Reaction

“…They consist of physical or chemical surface modification techniques and include the elaboration of self‐assembled monolayers (SAMs) and the grafting of small molecules or polymers . Recently, several groups have also explored the use of bio‐inspired materials, such as polydopamine derivatives, to functionalize the surface of various materials enabled by catechol groups . To avoid the use of the wet chemical method during the fabrication of the polymer coating, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) including Plasma‐Enhanced CVD (PECVD) processes have been developed to provide the required chemical groups onto the surface of a material .…”