Grafting of poly-l-lysine dendrigrafts onto polypropylene surface using plasma activation for ATP immobilization – Nanomaterial for potential applications in biotechnology

[Display omitted] •Modification of polymeric surfaces by oxygen and argon plasma treatment.•Monolayers immobilization of preformed poly-l-lysine dendrimers onto polyolefins.•Surfaces exhibiting high activity with polyanionic biological compounds such as ATP.•Potential applications as sensors. The present work describes a new environmental friendly strategy for the development of surfaces with high amine density via the grafting of native or modified poly-l-lysine dendrigraft (DGL G3) onto plasma activated polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polyimide, and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) surface. Modified DGL G3 was prepared by replacement of few peripheral amines by various functionalities. Grafting efficiency was determined by wettability measurements, IRTF, XPS, AFM, and by colorimetry using optimized Coomassie Brilliant Blue method tailored for surface analysis. It was shown that a 4–7nm DGL G3 monolayer with 4×1014aminecm−2 was covalently grafted onto various surfaces. Immobilization of adenosine triphosphate on the DGL-g-PP material from dilute solution was studied by bioluminescence and proved the ability of the material to interact with polyanionic biological compounds: 1 ATP complex with 5 amine groups. So, this material has a potential use in diagnostic and more widely for biotechnology due to its high capacity for biomolecule immobilization.