Bacterial biofilms can grow in diverse environments: pipelines, ship hulls, heat exchangers and medical devices are commonly affected. Biofilms greatly affect the energy sector by causing biofouling in oil pipelines and offshore engineering equipment and cause billions of dollars of damage. One strategy to inhibit biofilm formation is to design surfaces that resist or prevent adhesion of bacteria. The effect of surface properties, such as wettability and charge, on bacterial adhesion remains poorly understood. In this study, our objective is to design dual responsive copolymer brushes that can serve as model system for understanding the effects of charge and wettability on bacterial adhesion. We synthesized poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), which changes from hydrophobic at low pH to hydrophilic at high pH and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM), which is hydrophobic at high temperature and hydrophilic at low temperature. We synthesized PNIPAM and poly(tert-butyl acrylate) (PtBA) in solution using atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and the resulting polymers had low polydispersity indices (PDIs) and well controlled molecular weights. PAA was obtained from PtBA via hydrolysis. Currently, we are optimizing the ATRP procedure for synthesizing copolymers of PAA and PNIPAM. A critical challenge is to identify reaction conditions for which both polymers are soluble in the reaction solvent and have comparable reaction kinetics. We are presently synthesizing copolymer brushes on a silica substrate using surface-initiated ATRP, to be used in bacterial adhesion studies.                                                                                           

Development of dual responsive polymers for bacterial adhesion studies

247th National Meeting (2014)

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