Rational design of effective antifouling polymers with different structural architectures is challenging but important for many fundamental and applied applications, such as surface coatings, drug delivery carriers, and tissue engineering. Herein we developed a new route to synthesize and characterize an N-acryloylaminoethoxyethanol (AAEE) monomer, which integrates three hydrophilic groups of hydroxyl, amide, and ethylene glycol in the same material. AAEE monomers were then polymerized into different architectures of brushes, hydrogels, and nanogels for different antifouling applications using different polymerization methods. The resulting polyAAEE brushes, hydrogels, and nanogels exhibited excellent in vitro antifouling ability to resist protein adsorption, cell adhesion, and/or bacterial attachment. Molecular dynamics simulations further reveal that the antifouling performance is positively correlated with the hydration properties. Apart from super antifouling ability, polyAAEE nanogels also showed high stability in undiluted blood serum, minimal toxicity to cultured cells, and controllable drug release. PolyAAEE hydrogels showed highly mechanical strength and self-recovery property. Finally, we discuss the molecular structure-antifouling properties relationship of a series of hydroxyl-acrylic-based polymers. This work provides important structural insights into how very subtle structural changes in polymers can greatly improve antifouling performance.

Synthesis and characterization of poly(N-acryloylamino-Ethoxyethanol)-based antifouling materials

249th National Meeting (2015)

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