1. Evaluation of Antifouling Materials Based on Silica Gels
- Author
-
Beltran Osuna, Angela Aurora
- Subjects
- Polymer Chemistry, Polymers, aeroge, silica gels, CBMA, zwitterionic molecule, non-fouling materials, ATRP
- Abstract
In this thesis, a new non-fouling material based with silica gel has been developed to be used for biomedical applications. A zwitterionic molecule, carboxybetaine methacrylate (CBMA) was chosen as the preferred candidate to produce this material due to its proven non-fouling characteristics (ability to prevent the non-specific adhesion of proteins). pCBMA was produced through Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (ATRP) using a copper/bipyridine (Cu/BPY) complex as the catalyst. The zwitterionic polymer (pCBMA) was added in a typical sol-gel process to produce silica gels with tetraethoxy silane (TEOS) as a precursor (with a concentration of 1M), using methanol and ethanol as solvents.Two-step acid-base catalyzed process was used for the production of strong well-shaped gel disks and monoliths. Silica aerogels were obtained by drying the monoliths under supercritical conditions using carbon dioxide. pCBMA was characterized by using GPC and MALDI-TOF techniques while pCBMA/silica aerogels were analyzed through SEM, NMR and BET surface area measurements. Adsorption of human Fibrinogen (Fg) was measured by using Direct ELISA Test, to study the non-fouling properties of the pCBMA/silica gels produced.All the samples were analyzed by increasing the concentration of pCBMA (w/w %) in the silica gel/aerogel. SEM shows that particle size and porosity of the silica network is reduced at low concentration of polymer, but increases for concentrations above 33 w/w %. Also, NMR results confirmed a complete incorporation of the polymer into the silica structure for concentrations below 20 w/w %. BET surface area increases for low concentrations, but decreases otherwise (also corroborating SEM analysis). A suggested maximum value at 26 w/w % was found for the concentration of pCBMA, where the surface area of the pCBMA/aerogels is increased by 90 % (compared to the native aerogel). ELISA protein adsorption test yields a minimum concentration value, 24 w/w % of pCBMA, where the presence of the zwitterionic polymer reduces the adhesion of Fibrinogen by 84 % (compared with the native gel), proving the promising non-fouling characteristics of the pCBMA/silica gels produced.
- Published
- 2011