Graphene oxide and sulfonated polyanion co-doped hydrogel films for dual-layered membranes with superior hemocompatibility and antibacterial activity

Abstract

In this study, a new kind of hemocompatible and antibacterial dual-layered polymeric membrane was fabricated by coating a top layer of graphene oxide and a sulfonated polyanion co-doped hydrogel thin film (GO-SPHF) on a bottom membrane substrate. After a two-step spin-coating of casting solutions on glass plates, dual-layered membranes were obtained by a liquid-liquid phase inversion method. The GO-SPHF composite polyethersulfone (PES) membranes (PES/GO-SPHF) showed top layers with obviously large porous structures. The chemical composition tests indicated that there were abundant hydrophilic groups enriched on the membrane surface. The examination of membrane mechanical properties indicated that the composite membranes exhibited only slightly decreased performance compared to pristine PES membranes. Moreover, to validate the potential applications of this novel dual-layered membrane in diverse fields, we tested the hemocompatibility and antibacterial activity of the membranes, respectively. Notably, the PES/GO-SPHF membranes showed highly improved in vitro hemocompatibility, such as good anti-coagulant activity, suppressed platelet adhesion and activation, low inflammation potential, and good red blood cell compatibility. Furthermore, the dual-layered membranes exhibited robust antibacterial ability after in situ loading of Ag-nanoparticles with excellent bactericidal capability to both Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). Due to the integration of the porous membrane structure, good mechanical strength, excellent hemocompatibility, as well as robust bactericidal capability, the GO and sulfonated polyanion co-doped dual-layered membranes may open up a new protocol to greatly demonstrate the potential application of polymeric membranes for clinical hemodialysis and many other biomedical therapies.

Functional Graphene Nanomaterials Based Architectures: Biointeractions, Fabrications, and Emerging Biological Applications

“…Interfacial assembly of polymers and nanoparticles on substrates is also fueled by a wide range of biomedical needs, i.e., for cell and tissue cultures, stem cell growth and differentiation, artificial implants, and drug/gene delivery. − Earlier studies indicated that 2D FGNs can be coated on solid substrates through various physical and chemical approaches, and the resulted FGNs coatings may significantly enhance the interfacial properties, such as the biocompatibility, mechanical, electrochemical and anticorrosion, therefore, providing them great application potential for the surface modification of biomedical implants and membranes. , …”

Graphene‐Based Antimicrobial Biomedical Surfaces

“…Antibacterial surfaces can be obtained as e. g. paper, scaffolds and membranes from dispersions using for example drying, [15,33] filtration, [34,35] lyophilization [36] or interfacial self‐assembly [37] . Graphene and graphene derivatives can be attached to other surfaces as coatings for example by electrical and chemical deposition methods, [14–16,38–40] layer‐by‐layer assembly [41,42] or various surface spreading methods [43–48] . Finally, gel spinning, [49] electrospinning, [50,51] layer‐by‐layer assembly [41,52,53] or melt extrusion [54] have been used to create graphene based antibacterial nanocomposites.…”

“…He et al., fabricated hemo‐compatible and antibacterial dual‐layered polymeric membrane by coating a top layer of graphene oxide and sulfonated polyanion co‐doped hydrogel thin film on a bottom membrane substrate. The dual layered membrane exhibited significant antimicrobial activity against E. coli and S. aureus after in situ loading of silver‐nanoparticles by maintaining the sustained release of silver ions [45] . Uniformly distributed silver nanoparticles GO nanosheets through in‐situ reduction of Ag+ subsequently wrapped with a thin layer of type I collagen observed to have synergistic antimicrobial activity on implant surface by rapidly deactivating the 96.3 % and 99.4 % E. coli and S. aureus respectively via physical interaction as well as light inspired photodynamic action [61] .…”

New membranes based on polyethersulfone – SlipSkin™ polymer blends with low fouling and high blood compatibility

“…Alternative methods to improve membrane compatibility and fouling resistance include coating or grafting of hydrophilic polymers onto membranes' surfaces. For example, coating a PES membrane with graphene oxide and sulfonated polyanion hydrogel thin film c an enhance the membrane hydrophilicity [20,22,23]. However, the coating there is not covalently bound and during dialysis sessions it can be detached from the membrane due to the blood flow and the associated shear stress [14,20,22].…”