Nature has engineered nontoxic catechols, such as melanin and polydopamine, that serve many biological functions that scientists seek to exploit. In recent years, bio-inspired catecholic chemistry has attracted tremendous attention due to their attachment to virtually any type of organic and inorganic surface. This facile chemical modification of material surfaces has also been studied as a platform for subsequent surface functionalization reactions. In our recent research, we have developed a synthetic approach to prepare poly(methyl methacrylate)-polydopamine (PMMA-PDA) block copolymers combining mussel-inspired catecholic oxidative chemistry and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) (see associated Figure). The resulting copolymers display enhanced solvent solubility, mechanical stability and good protein antifouling behavior as surface coatings. Solvent solubility is advantageous because this enables the copolymers to be applied to surfaces in a standard solvent-based coating formulation, whereas the pure polydopamine component cannot. In addition, we have recently shown that natural catechols, such as melanin isolated from squid or cuttlefish ink, show a significant thermal and thermooxidative stabilization effect as additives in commercial polymers. We hypothesize that the stabilization effect originates from their free-radical quenching ability, which is also a known function of these molecules in protecting biological organisms. The catechols listed above are naturally derived polymeric molecules that are expected to be nontoxic and are also less likely to leach from the host polymer pointing to their potential as environmentally friendly additives.

Bio-inspired catecholic polymers in functional materials design

247th National Meeting (2014)

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