A Versatile Star PEG Grafting Method for the Generation of Nonfouling and Nonthrombogenic Surfaces

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) grafting has a great potential to create nonfouling and nonthrombogenic surfaces, but present techniques lack versatility and stability. The present work aimed to develop a versatile PEG grafting method applicable to most biomaterial surfaces, by taking advantage of novel primary amine-rich plasma-polymerized coatings. Star-shaped PEG covalent binding was studied using static contact angle, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D). Fluorescence and QCM-D both confirmed strong reduction of protein adsorption when compared to plasma-polymerized coatings and pristine poly(ethyleneterephthalate) (PET). Moreover, almost no platelet adhesion was observed after 15 min perfusion in whole blood. Altogether, our results suggest that primary amine-rich plasma-polymerized coatings offer a promising stable and versatile method for PEG grafting in order to create nonfouling and nonthrombogenic surfaces and micropatterns.