Abstract
Hydrophilic coatings have recently emerged as a new approach to avoiding the adhesion of (bio)organisms on surfaces immersed in water. In these coatings the hydrophilic character is crucial for the anti-fouling (AF) performance. However, this property can be rapidly lost due to the inevitable damages which occur at the surface, reducing the long-term effectiveness of the AF functionality. We report hydrophilic polycarbonate-poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether (mPEG) polyurethane coatings with tunable hydrophilic properties as well as an excellent and long-term stability in water. The coatings exhibit low protein adhesion values and are able to self-replenish their hydrophilicity after damage, due to the existence of a reservoir of hydrophilic dangling chains incorporated in the bulk. The combination of low Tg and sufficient mobility of the mPEG dangling chains (enabled by chains with higher molecular weight) proved to be crucial to ensure autonomous surface hydrophilicity recovery when the coatings were immersed in water. This coatings and design approach offers new possibilities towards high-performance AF coatings with an extended service life-time which can be used in several major applications areas, such as marine and biomedical coatings, with major economic and environmental benefits.
Highlights
Coatings which are immersed or permanently in contact with water will inevitably accumulate organisms on their surface, i.e., bio-fouling will take place
The current study focuses on developing hydrophilic self-replenishing coatings, targeting application areas such as marine or medical AF coatings
PC polymers were successfully used in the preparation of cross-linked hydrophilic coatings, which are colorless and transparent, with very low leachable amounts
Summary
Coatings which are immersed or permanently in contact with water will inevitably accumulate organisms on their surface, i.e., bio-fouling will take place. It should be noted that, while for some specific applications an degradable polymer coating may be required (e.g., for short-term medical implants), for many others, the overall long term stability of the hydrophilic self-healing coatings when immersed in water and the absence of leachable materials (i.e., resulting from bulk or network degradation) are essential, e.g., in the marine field and especially on medical devices in contact with the human skin or body-fluids Due to their interesting thermal and mechanical properties, aliphatic Poly(carbonates) (PCs) find applications in a wide variety of fields, such as in regenerative medicine, drug delivery and in the coatings industry [25,26,27,28]. The recoverability of the surface properties in water is demonstrated by dynamic contact angle measurements, before and after, controlled damage which was intentionally induced at the coatings surface
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