Nanomechanical Properties of Oligo(ethylene glycol methacrylate) Polymer Brush‐Based Biointerfaces

Abstract

Protein resistant polymer brushes of poly(diethylene glycol methylether methacrylate) (DEGMA) are synthesized by surface‐initiated polymerization (SIP) on gold and are thoroughly characterized with particular attention to the nanomechanical properties. Compared to the well known brushes of poly(oligoethylene glycol methylether methacrylate) (POEGMA) on gold, PDEGMA brushes grow faster and yield higher final brush heights. In confocal fluorescence microscopy experiments it is shown that both types of brushes possess similar low non‐specific adsorption levels of labeled bovine serum albumin (BSA) from buffer. While the surface stiffness evaluated by depth sensing indentation in the dry state suggests that side chain crystallization imparts high stiffness to the POEGMA brush, PDEGMA brushes behave similar to poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) brushes of comparable thickness. In the wet state PDEGMA brushes are shown to possess an elastic modulus of 800 kPa, as estimated by AFM nanoindentation, which is smaller than that of POEGMA (3 000 kPa). Expanding these brushes to end‐functional polymers with recently developed block copolymer brush approaches, tailored soft biointerfaces can be generated for cell ‐ surface interaction and cell culture studies.

Swelling Behavior and Nanomechanical Properties of (Peptide-Modified) Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) and Poly(poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate) Brushes

“…The scattering length density profiles of the RGD modified PHEMA brush clearly indicate 19 that under the reaction conditions used in this study, the peptide ligands are preferentially located at the polymer brush -air interface.…”

“…The swelling ratios are similar for all the polymers with most of the values between 1.5 and 3.5, which are comparable to values reported for other hydrophilic polymer brushes. 19,21,22,37 For samples with lower grafting density and smaller film thicknesses (i.e. shorter ATRP reaction times), the swelling ratios were found to increase to ~ 5.…”

Thin Poly(Di(Ethylene Glycol)Methyl Ether Methacrylate) Homopolymer Brushes Allow Controlled Adsorption and Desorption of PaTu 8988t Cells

“…In general, polymer brushes are defined as polymer chains grafted at one end to a surface with high grafting density, which results in chain stretching away from the surface . Polymer brushes are precisely tunable in height via the polymerization time and their stiffness is a function of polymer crosslinking density . Polymer brushes can be routinely synthesized under controlled conditions by various sophisticated techniques like surface initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI‐ATRP), e.g., on gold, silicon or glass .…”

Synthesis of inositol‐based star polymers through low ppm ATRP methods

“…A star block six‐arm star block copolymer with a meso ‐inositol‐based core and block copolymer arms composed of amphiphilic PDEGMA‐ b ‐PMMA have been synthesized for the first time using only 30 ppm of Cu catalytic complex, following the ARGET ATRP, SARA ATRP, and se ATRP procedures (Table ). Until now, PDEGMA‐ b ‐PMMA block copolymers were synthesized mainly by RAFT, or by ATRP, but always with very high amounts of catalyst (up to 71,200 ppm).…”