Polyvinylchloride surface modified with polymer brushes for reduced protein, cell and bacteria attachment

The objective of this study was to coat negatively charged polymer brushes by a covalent bond onto the surface of polyvinylchloride using a simple conventional surface free radical polymerisation technique. The coated surfaces were assessed with contact angle, protein adsorption, cell adhesion, and bacterial adhesion. Bovine serum albumin and bovine fibrinogen were used for protein adsorption evaluation. Mouse fibroblast (NIH-3T3) cells and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were used to assess surface adhesion. Results show that the surface modified with all the attached polymers exhibited significantly reduced contact angle, protein adsorption, and cell as well as bacterial adhesion among which the negatively charged polymers showed extremely low values in all the tests. The negatively charged polymer shows its contact angle at 5° as compared to 70° for original polyvinylchloride. Its bovine serum albumin, bovine fibrinogen, 3T3 adhesion, and P. aeruginosa adhesion were 93%, 84%, 92%, and 92% lower than the original PVC, respectively. Furthermore, the polyvinylchloride surface coated with negatively charged polymer brushes exhibited a hydrogel-like property. The results indicate that coating a polyvinylchloride surface with acrylic acids using a simple surface-initiated free radical polymerisation and then converting those to negatively charged salts can be an effective and efficient route for fouling-resistant applications.