Growing antifouling fluorinated polymer brushes on polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel surface via g-C3N4@InVO4 catalyzed surface-initiated photo atom transfer radical polymerization

Abstract

A novel g-C3N4@InVO4 semiconductor catalyzed surface-initiated photo atom transfer radical polymerization without catalysts residues problem has been developed. This method proceeded in N-methyl pyrrolidone/aqueous under atmospheric conditions. To verify the versatility of this method and enhance the antifouling properties of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel, two types of fluorinated polymer brushes (p6F/p13F) were successfully constructed on PVA hydrogel surface instead of the subsurface. The chemical bonds between PVA matrix and fluorinated polymer brushes (p6F/p13F) enhanced the surface cross link density and resulted in an increase of thermal stability and mechanical properties. All fluorinated PVA hydrogels with excellent antifouling properties was able to tackle the biofouling problem in complex environment of the human body. In addition, all fluorinated PVA hydrogels was no cytotoxicity for L929 and NDHF according to ISO 10993.5:2009. g-C3N4@InVO4 catalyzed SI-photoATRP provides a novel surface modification technology for various biological or medical materials in the industrial-scale application.