Preparation and characterizations of poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline) based antifouling coating by thermally induced immobilization

Poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline) (PMOXA) has been proved to be a kind of potential antifouling coating material. In this work, a series of comb copolymers, poly[(2-methyl-2-oxazoline)-random-glycidyl methacrylate] (PMOXA-r-GMA), with a variety of compositions were synthesized by free radical polymerization of the oligo(2-methyl-2-oxazoline) methacrylate macromonomer and glycidyl methacrylate, and then characterized and used to coat silicon/glass surfaces. A one-step coating procedure by a simple annealing protocol was used to yield covalent and cross-linked PMOXA-based antifouling coatings. The coatings were rigorously characterized in terms of the surface chemical composition, hydrophilicity, thickness and morphology using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the water contact angle (WCA) test, ellipsometry and atomic force microscopy. The results demonstrated that the PMOXA-r-GMA brushes could successfully be bonded onto silicon/glass surfaces. Finally, the fouling resistance ability of the modified surface was evaluated by analyzing the adsorption of bovine serum albumin protein, bacterial cell attachment and platelet adhesion, which indicated that the modified silicon/glass surfaces had a superior resistance to protein, bacterial cell and platelet adsorption, and the performance of fouling resistance was enhanced with the content of PMOXA segments in the copolymers.