Study of polystyrene-poly(ethylene oxide) diblock copolymer monolayers as barriers to protein adsorption

Protein adsorption resistant surfaces find use in many biomedical applications, such as catheters, dialysis devices and biosensors that involve blood contacting surfaces. To ensure long-term functioning of a device in an environment containing protein, there is a need to produce homogeneous surfaces that are resistant to protein adsorption. A polymer brush covered surface, produced by either physical adsorption or chemical grafting of hydrophilic polymers to surfaces, is one of the approaches used in creating such surfaces. High grafting densities needed to make an effective barrier are usually not realized in chemical grafting/adsorption from solution, due to self-exclusion of surface grafted molecules. In this dissertation polymer brush surfaces formed by chemically grafted PEO molecules and transferred monolayers of PS-b-PEO diblock copolymers are investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM), surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and surface pressure measurement techniques. An AFM adhesion mapping technique was used to evaluate the surface heterogeneity of chemically modified PEO and transferred diblock copolymer monolayer surfaces. The behavior of PS-b-PEO molecules at the air-water interface was studied using Langmuir trough. The stability of transferred diblock copolymer monolayers was investigated using AFM. Using SPR, protein adsorption to the diblock copolymer layers was investigated as a function of protein size (using HSA and ferritin) as a function of grafting density of PEO in the monolayer. It was seen that a lower density of the PS-b-PEO monolayer was sufficient to prevent ferritin adsorption (larger protein) while a higher density brush layer was required to achieve complete prevention of HSA adsorption to the surface. The effect of mobility of the polymer brush layer on protein adsorption prevention was analyzed using SPR and surface pressure measurements. It was seen that the copolymer monolayer (at the air-buffer interface) rearranged itself to allow protein to penetrate and adsorb to the air-water interface while a PS-b-PEO monolayer immobilized at the SPR sensing surface at same surface density prevented protein from penetrating the brush layer. The conclusions drawn indicate the interplay between size and density of the polymer brush and the size of the protein and the relation between the mobility of the brush layer and protein adsorption.