Foundational materials for nonfouling coatings were designed and synthesized from a series of novel dual-functional zwitterionic polymers, Poly[NRZI], which were easily obtained via ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) followed by a single step transformation of the cationic precursor, Poly[NR(+)], to the zwitterion, Poly[NRZI]. The resulting unique dual-functional structure contained the anion and the cation within the same repeat unit but on separate side chains, enabling the hydrophilicity of the system to be tuned at the repeat unit level. These dual-functional zwitterionic polymers were specifically designed to investigate the impact of structural changes, including the backbone, hydrophilicity, and charge, on the overall nonfouling properties. To evaluate the importance of backbone structure, and as a direct comparison to previously studied methacrylate-based betaines, norbornene-based carbo- and sulfobetaines (Poly[NCarboZI] and Poly[NSulfoZI]) as well as a methacrylate-based sulfobetaine (Poly[MASulfoZI]) were synthesized. These structures contain the anion-cation pairs on the same side chain. Nonfouling coatings were prepared from copolymers, composed of the zwitterionic/cationic precursor monomer and an ethoxysilane-containing monomer. The coatings were evaluated by using protein adsorption studies, which clearly indicated that the overall hydrophilicity has a major influence on the nonfouling character of the materials. The most hydrophilic coating, from the oligoethylene glycol (OEG)-containing dual-functional betaine, Poly[NOEGZI-co-NSi], showed the best resistance to nonspecific protein adsorption (Γ(FIB) = 0.039 ng/mm(2)). Both norbornene-based polymers systems, Poly[NSulfoZI] and Poly[NCarboZI], were more hydrophilic and thus more resistant to protein adsorption than the methacrylate-based Poly[MASulfoZI]. Comparing the protein resistance of the dual-functional zwitterionic coatings, Poly[NRZI-co-NSi], to that of their cationic counterparts, Poly[NR(+)-co-NSi], revealed the importance of screening electrostatic interactions. The adsorption of negatively charged proteins on zwitterionic coatings was significantly less, despite the fact that both coatings had similar wetting properties. These results demonstrate that the unique, tunable dual-functional zwitterionic polymers reported here can be used to make coatings that are highly efficient at resisting protein adsorption.
Here, we report the modification of an amphiphilic antibacterial polynorbornene, Poly3, via incorporation of hydrophilic, biocompatible groups. The sugar, zwitterionic, and polyethylene glycol based moieties were incorporated in varying ratios by copolymerization and post-polymerization techniques. Well-defined copolymers with molecular weights of 3 kDa and narrow polydispersity indices from 1.08 to 1.15 were obtained. The effects of these modifications on the biological activity of these polymers were analyzed by determining their minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and their hemolytic activities (HC50).
Novel amphiphilic polybetaines were synthesized and used as the base material for nonfouling coatings. The amphiphilicity of these polybetaines was systematically tuned by coupling chains of increasing hydrophobicity to the zwitterionic functionality side at the repeat unit level. An oligoethylene glycol (OEG) moiety was selected to yield the most hydrophilic coating, while octyl (C(8)) and fluorinated (F) groups were used to impart lipophilicity and lipophobicity to the coatings, respectively. This unique design allowed us to investigate the effect of the lipophilicity/lipophobicity of the side chain on the nonfouling properties of these zwitterionic systems. Adsorption studies, performed using six different proteins, showed that the fluorinated polybetaine, Poly[NFZI-co-NSi], resisted nonspecific adsorption as effectively as, and in some cases even better than, the most hydrophilic Poly[NOEGZI-co-NSi] coating. The comparison of Poly[NFZI-co-NSi] to its noncharged analog demonstrated the essential nature of the zwitterionic functionality in imparting nonfouling character to the coating.
Ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) was used to synthesize novel norbornene based polycarboxy- (d-Poly 3a and d-Poly 3b) and polysulfobetaines (Poly 3c) using the third generation Grubbs’ catalyst (G3) as the initiator. Hydrophobicity of the polycarboxybetaines was varied by changing the bridging group of the norbornene backbone. A protective group approach was utilized to prevent any possible retardation in the polymerization due to interactions of the carboxylate functionality with the catalyst and to provide ease of characterization. The tert-butyl ester protected precursor polymers (Poly 3a and Poly 3b) were deprotected under acidic conditions to yield the corresponding polycarboxybetaines with very narrow polydispersity indices, ranging from 1.03 to 1.15. This method allowed excellent control over the molecular weight distributions compared to the direct polymerization approach. When molecular weight was plotted against the theoretical degree of polymerization (DP), linear relationships were obtained for both 1H NMR and GPC-MALLS data. Oxanorbornene based polycarboxybetaine (d-Poly 3a) was studied in aqueous 0.1 M NaBr solution by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and no significant aggregation was observed. An attempt was made to determine the acid ionization constant (K a) of the carboxylate group, which led to the discovery that the cyclic imide of these particular monomers is easily ring opened under basic conditions.
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