(99e) Zwitterionic and Fluorinated Amphiphilic Polymer Coatings with Enhanced Resistance to Biofilm Formation

The pervasiveness of microbial fouling on biomedical interfaces that can cause serious infections has motivated research into antifouling materials that resist irreversible biofilm formation. Our efforts focus on amphiphilic polymer coatings produced via initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) to present a surface energy landscape that reduces the adhesion of bacteria and biofilm formation. The present work details the iCVD copolymerization of hydrophobic 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyl acrylate (PFDA) and 4-vinylpyridine (4VP) that is subsequently derivatized to a hydrophilic sulfobetaine zwitterionic moiety to form amphiphilic coatings. Synthesis of these zwitterionic-fluorinated amphiphilic copolymers is uniquely enabled by the all-dry nature of the iCVD technique. Individually, PPFDA coatings exhibit significant promotion of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm growth, while zwitterionic polymer coatings reduce biofilm formation in accordance with existing studies of antifouling zwitterionic materials. In conjunction, the random copolymerization of these two species with drastically differing surface energies displays enhanced reduction of biofilm formation in the short term. In this work, we report the synthesis and characterization of this new amphiphilic polymer coating and assess its superior ability to reduce the adhesion of biofilm-forming P. aeruginosa.