Synthesis and Characterizationof Poly(N-hydroxyethylacrylamide) for Long-Term AntifoulingAbility.

Development of biomaterials with long-term biocompatibility,durability,and stability remains a critical challenge for biomedical devices.Here, we synthesize, characterize, and graft poly(N-(2-hydroxyethyl)acrylamide) (polyHEAA) onto both gold surfaces andgold nanoparticles (AuNPs) via surface-initiated atom transfer radicalpolymerization (SI-ATRP) to form a stable antifouling coating to resistnonspecific protein adsorption and bacterial attachment. Surface plasmonresonance (SPR) results demonstrate that all of polyHEAA brushes coatedon the gold substrate at a wide range of film thickness of ∼10–40nm can achieve almost zero protein adsorption from undiluted bloodplasma and serum for 1 h, while static bacteria assay results showthat polyHEAA brushes prohibit long-term bacterial colonization by Staphylococcus epidermidisand Escherichia coliRP437up to 3 days. Moreover, the polyHEAA-coated AuNPs withdifferent diameters remain their hydrodynamic sizes unchanged in humanblood plasma and serum for up to 7 days. All these data indicate thatpolyHEAA can serve as promising biomaterials with long-term biocompatibilityand durability suitable for applications in complex biological media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]