Oxygen Tolerant and Cytocompatible Iron(0)-Mediated ATRP Enables the Controlled Growth of Polymer Brushes from Mammalian Cell Cultures

ABSTRACT: The use of zerovalent iron (Fe0)-coated plates, which act both as a source of catalyst and as a reducing agent during surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP), enables the controlled growth of a wide range of polymer brushes under ambient conditions, and utilizing either organic or aqueous reaction media. Thanks to its cytocompatibility, Fe0 SI-ATRP can be applied within cell cultures, providing a tool that can broadly and dynamically modify the substrate’s affinity towards cells, without influencing their viability. Upon systematically assessing the application of Fe-based catalytic systems in the controlled grafting of polymers, Fe0 SI-ATRP emerges as an extremely versatile technique that could be applied to tune the physicochemical properties of cell’s microenvironments on biomaterials or within tissue engineering constructs.