Abstract
Fouling initiated by nonspecific protein adsorption is a great challenge in biomedical applications, including biosensors, bioanalytical devices, and implants. Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), a popular material with many attractive properties for device fabrication in the biomedical field, suffers serious fouling problems from protein adsorption due to its hydrophobic nature, which limits the practical use of PDMS-based devices. Effort has been made to develop biocompatible materials for anti-fouling coatings of PDMS. In this review, typical nonfouling materials for PDMS coatings are introduced and the associated basic anti-fouling mechanisms, including the steric repulsion mechanism and the hydration layer mechanism, are described. Understanding the relationships between the characteristics of coating materials and the accompanying anti-fouling mechanisms is critical for preparing PDMS coatings with desirable anti-fouling properties.
Highlights
Over the past few decades, poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) has been widely used in biomedical applications such as medical/surgical implants, pacemaker encapsulants, catheters and contact lenses [1,2,3]
Since protein fouling is such a common and intractable problem for most PDMS-based biomedical implants and devices, this review mainly focuses on proteinfouling-resistant coatings
The fouling of proteins from biological fluids is a significant challenge for the use of biomedical devices
Summary
Over the past few decades, poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) has been widely used in biomedical applications such as medical/surgical implants, pacemaker encapsulants, catheters and contact lenses [1,2,3]. Several excellent reviews [10,11,12,13,14] have covered existing surface modification strategies for fabricating nonfouling PDMS surfaces through both physical and chemical. The present review focuses on the structures and mechanisms of anti-fouling coating polymers. It is known that polymer chain length plays an important role in antibiofouling mechanisms. For short-chain-length polymers, a hydration layer forms due to their hydrophilicity, providing protein resistance. For long-chain-length materials, in addition to a hydration layer, steric repulsion from the flexible polymer chains is believed to contribute to anti-fouling properties. In order to tune the hydration layer and the steric repulsion, several types of polymers have been developed, including poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-based materials and polyzwitterionic materials. This paper reviews recent progress on anti-fouling coatings for PDMS surfaces
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