Abstract
•Intuitive, effective and low cost thermal-induced surface zwitterionization.•Effect of monomer concentration on surface grafting coverage and packing density.•Ideal packing density yield undetectable protein, blood-cell adhesion and activation.•Improved haemocompatibility for versatile organic and inorganic materials.
In this study, a facile and effective strategy is presented for the preparation of a series of zwitterionic poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) (pSBMA)-grafted organic and inorganic biomaterials with well-controlled haemocompatibility via intuitive thermal-induced graft polymerization. The research focused on the effects of zwitterionic surface packing density on human blood compatibility by varying the SBMA monomer concentration on the silanized silicon wafer substrates. A 0.2M SBMA monomer solution was found to not only produce Si wafer surfaces with ideal zwitterionic surface packing density and uniform, evenly distributed pSBMA grafting coverage but also yield optimal hydrophilicity and haemocompatibility. SBMA monomer concentrations lower and greater than 0.2M yielded a zwitterionic surface with low grafting coverage. This study also demonstrated that the same, intuitive thermal-induced graft polymerization strategy could be applied to a variety of organic polymeric, inorganic ceramic and metal oxide biomaterials to improve haemocompatibility. Among the tested organic and inorganic materials, however, it was found that inorganic biomaterials demonstrated greater resistance to protein and platelet adhesions. It was hypothesized that the ozone treatment, which generated an abundance of hydroxide groups on inorganic substrate interfaces, might have given the inorganic biomaterials a more stable silanized layer yielding a preferable reaction state and resulted in sturdier and more durable pSBMA grafting.