Silicones, particularly silica-reinforced crosslinked polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), are widely-used for medical and marine applications. However, silicone-based medical devices are prone to thrombosis and infection and silicone foul-release (FR) coatings represent have limited efficacy against marine organisms. The poor anti-fouling behavior of silicones is attributed to their extreme hydrophobicity. Thus, incorporation of a hydrophilic anti-fouling component to silicones may enhance resistance to biological adhesion. Although poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) is known to be exceptionally anti-fouling (e.g. protein resistant), these observations have been largely made when PEO is grafted to a physically stable substrate (e.g. gold and silicon wafer). In this way, migration of the PEO to the water-surface interface, where biological adhesion occurs, is not required. In this work, we sought to enhance the water-driven surface-migration of PEO incorporated into silicones in order to achieve superior anti-fouling behavior. Conventional PEO-silanes consist of a PEO segment separated from the reactive crosslinkable group by a short alkane spacer. In contrast, we prepared PEO-silane amphiphiles with siloxane tethers of varying lengths and as well as variable PEO segment lengths. Amphiphilic silicone coatings were prepared by blending a silicone with the PEO-silane amphiphiles at different concentrations. The impact of amphiphile architecture as well as level of silica reinforcing filler on water-driven surface restructuring was assessed. The resistance of these amphiphilic silicone coatings to proteins, bacteria and marine organisms was evaluated.

Amphiphilic silicones with broad-spectrum anti-fouling behavior

256th National Meeting (2018)

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