Effect of Film Thickness on the Antifouling Performance of Poly(hydroxy-functional methacrylates) Grafted Surfaces

The development of nonfouling biomaterials to prevent nonspecific protein adsorption and cell/bacterial adhesion is critical for many biomedical applications, such as antithrombogenic implants and biosensors. In this work, we polymerize two types of hydroxy-functional methacrylates monomers of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and hydroxypropyl methacrylate (HPMA) into polymer brushes on the gold substrate via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP). We systematically examine the effect of the film thickness of polyHEMA and polyHPMA brushes on their antifouling performance in a wide range of biological media including single-protein solution, both diluted and undiluted human blood serum and plasma, and bacteria culture. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) results show a strong correlation between antifouling property and film thickness. Too thin or too thick polymer brushes lead to large protein adsorption. Surfaces with the appropriate film thickness of ∼25−45 nm for polyHPMA and ∼20−45 nm for polyHEMA can achieve almost zero protein adsorption (