Abstract
We studied the effect of polymer design on the interfacial structure and physical properties of polymer films in water based on a poly(vinyl ether) platform with hydrophilic side-chains to construct bioinert interfaces. Initially, we explored how to prepare hydrophilic surfaces using poly(vinyl ether)s, utilizing the preferential segregation of a rubbery component in a diblock copolymer film with a glassy component, crosslinking a hydrophilic polymer, and designing an interfacial modifier with a special architecture. Characterizing the interfacial structure and physical properties of the obtained polymer films in water revealed that a small difference in the side-chain structure significantly impacts the resultant interfacial properties of the polymers, leading to excellent blood compatibility. Furthermore, we demonstrate that swelling behaviors, which are related to chain dynamics, at the water interface play a key role in determining bioinert properties.
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Acknowledgements
The author would like to express sincere gratitude to Prof. Keiji Tanaka, Prof. Hisao Matsuno, and Prof. Daisuke Kawaguchi (Kyushu University) for their continuous encouragement and constructive discussions throughout this work. The author also deeply appreciates great contributions to this work from Dr. Ayanobu Horinouchi, Dr. Cui Zhang, Dr. Shin Sugimoto, Ms. Nozomi Itagaki, and Dr. Hung Kim Nguyen (Kyushu University) and would like to thank Prof. Sadahito Aoshima (Osaka University) and Prof. Shokyoku Kanaoka (The University of Shiga Prefecture) for collaborations. Special thanks to the Asylum Research, Oxford Instruments Company for support. This research was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI, Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B), Grant Number JP16K17917 and The Mazda Foundation.
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Oda, Y. Construction of hydrophilic surfaces with poly(vinyl ether)s and their interfacial properties in water. Polym J 51, 955–962 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41428-019-0215-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41428-019-0215-2
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