Polyoxazolines for Nonfouling Surface Coatings - A Direct Comparison to the Gold Standard PEG

• Published in: Macromolecular rapid communications. Vol. 33; no. 19; pp. 1663 - 1676
• Main Authors: Konradi, Rupert, Acikgoz, Canet, Textor, Marcus
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim WILEY-VCH Verlag 15.10.2012; WILEY‐VCH Verlag
• Subjects: Adsorption; Bacterial Adhesion - physiology; coatings; Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; monolayers; nonfouling; Oxazoles; Oxidation-Reduction; poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline); poly(ethylene glycol); Polyethylene Glycols - chemistry; Proteins - chemistry; Surface Properties
• ISSN: 1022-1336; 1521-3927; 1521-3927
• DOI: 10.1002/marc.201200422

The prevention of surface fouling is becoming increasingly important for the development of anti‐infective medical implants, biosensors with improved signal‐to‐noise ratios, and low‐fouling membranes to name a few examples. We review a direct comparison of poly(ethylene glycol), the gold standard polymer to impart surfaces with nonfouling properties, to an alternative polymer, poly(2‐methyl‐2‐oxazoline) (PMOXA), and show that both polymers are equally excellent in rendering surfaces nonfouling while PMOXA coatings are more stable in oxidative environments. We discuss prerequisites for the fabrication of nonfouling surface coatings and implications for the polymer choice according to application requirements. We review a direct, quantitative comparison of nonfouling surface coatings based on poly(ethylene glycol) to poly(2‐methyl‐2‐oxazoline). We find that poly(2‐methyl‐2‐oxazoline) is more stable in oxidative environments, while both polymers show a similar excellent repellency of full serum proteins and bacteria. Polymer brush chain density and stretching seems to be the decisive factor rather than the nature of the polymer.