In
this work, we developed a synthetic strategy to synthesize dual-temperature-responsive
low surface fouling zwitterionic microgels. Statistical poly(N-vinylcaprolactam-co-glycidyl methacrylate)
copolymers were synthesized by RAFT polymerization and post-modified
by thiol-epoxy click reaction with thiol end-group-modified poly(sulfobetaine)
macro-RAFT (PSB-SH) to obtain poly(N-vinylcaprolactam-co-glycidyl methacrylate)-graft-poly(sulfobetaine)
(PVCL-co-PGMA-g-PSB) graft copolymers.
Synthesized graft copolymers were cross-linked by diamine cross-linker
in water-in-oil (w/o) inverse mini-emulsion to obtain zwitterionic
microgels. Using this approach, we synthesized microgels with unique
microstructure, high loading and uniform distribution of poly(sulfobetaine)
chains, which exhibits tunable dual-volume phase transition temperatures.
The microgels also showed excellent antifouling property reflected
in strongly reduced protein absorption on a microgel-coated surface
observed in real time by a Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation
(QCM-D) monitoring experiment with continuous flow of protein solution.
Therefore, this kind of zwitterionic microgel can be potentially used
for temperature-triggered drug delivery and anti-bioadhesion coating
material as well.
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