Amphiphilic pentablock copolymers and their blends with PDMS for antibiofouling coatings |
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| Authors: | Elisa Martinelli Elisa Guazzelli Cristina Bartoli Matteo Gazzarri Federica Chiellini Giancarlo Galli Maureen E Callow James A Callow John A Finlay Sophie Hill |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, UdR Pisa INSTM, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy;2. School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom |
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| Abstract: | Well‐defined amphiphilic pentablock copolymers Siy‐(EGx‐FAz)2 composed of polysiloxane (Si), polyethylene glycol (EG), and perfluorohexylethyl polyacrylate (FA) blocks are synthesized by ATRP of FA monomer starting from a difunctional bromo‐terminated macroinitiator. Diblock copolymers EGx‐FAz are also synthesized as model systems. The block copolymers are used, either alone or blended with a PDMS matrix in varied loadings, to prepare antibiofouling coatings. Angle‐resolved XPS and contact angle measurements show that the coating surface is highly enriched in fluorine content but undergoes reconstruction after contact with water. Protein adsorption experiments with human serum albumin and calf serum highlight that diblock copolymers resist protein adhesion better than do pentablock copolymers. Blending of the pentablock copolymer with PDMS results in increased protein adsorption. By contrast, the PDMS‐matrix coatings show high removal percentages of sporelings of the green fouling alga Ulva linza. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 2015 , 53, 1213–1225 |
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| Keywords: | amphphiles antibiofouling block copolymers fluoropolymers protein adsorption Ulva linza |
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