Design and Screening of Zwitterionic Polymer Scaffold for Rapid
Underwater Adhesion and Long-term Antifouling Stability
Abstract
As key components of antifouling material surfaces, the design and
screening of polymer molecules grafted on the substrate are critical.
However, current experimental and computational models still retain an
empirical flavor due to the complex structure of polymers. Here, we
report a simple and general strategy that enables multi-scale design and
screening of easily synthesized functional polymer molecules to address
this challenge. Specifically, the required functions of the antifouling
material are decomposed and assigned to different modules of the polymer
molecules. By designing different modules, a novel bio-inspired polymer
with three zwitterionic poly (sulfobetaine methacrylate) (PSBMA) chains,
three catechol (DOPA) anchors (tri-DOPA-PSBMA), and a tris(2-aminoethyl)
amine (TREN) scaffold were screened out. Moreover, it was successfully
synthesized via an atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The
excellent performance of tri-DOPA-PSBMA with a versatile and convenient
grafting strategy makes it a promising material for marine devices,
biomedical devices, and industrial applications.