Zwitterionic Porous Conjugated Polymers as a Versatile Platform for Antibiofouling Implantable Bioelectronics

Here, we describe the design, synthesis, and evaluation of two kinds of multifunctional zwitterionic linear poly(carboxybetaine thiophene) (PCBTh) and porous poly(carboxybetaine thiophene-co-9,9′-bifluoreneylidene) (PCBTh-coBF) polymers, which can be facilely synthesized using Yamamoto and Suzuki polycondensation, respectively. The integrations of zwitterionic polymer-based biomaterials that consist of conjugated polymer backbones, multifunctional zwitterionic side chains, and distorted units are designed and studied to address a key challenge of conjugated polymers in biomedical applications: biofouling phenomena that eventually lead to the failure and reduced lifetime of bioelectronics in the body. The introduction of a twisting unit into the polymer backbone allows us to tune the porosity, morphology, optical properties, and efficiency of antibiofouling features of resulting polymers. The PCBTh-coBF coated surface exhibits good conductivity, stability, hydrophilicity, and antibiofouling properties agai...