Surface attached polymer networks are hard to access
A new paper that was just published on the Macromolecules webpage describes Mónica Pérez-Perrino's and Rodrigo Navarro's work on the accessibility of surface attached polymer networks for other macromolecules.
Mónica and Rodrigo were generating surface-attached polymer networks with reactive NHS ester units and exposed those to aminoterminated polyethylene glycols. They then used thickness measurements and other means of characterization to determine the amount of PEG bound within the network and the degree of functionalization of the NHS units.
The variation of several crucial reaction parameters led them to the conclusion that only small molecules are free to diffuse into the networks. Larger ones are very efficiently repelled and can only react at the very periphery of the coatings.
These results are in very good agreement with previous findings on the strong repellency of proteins by surface attached hydrogels.
The article just appeared today in the "As soon as publishable" section of Macromolecules:
Mónica Pérez-Perrino, Rodrigo Navarro, Oswald Prucker, and Jürgen Rühe
Binding of Functionalized Polymers to Surface-Attached Polymer Networks Containing Reactive Groups
Macromolecules, 2014, 47, (ASAP)
DOI: 10.1021/ma500282b
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