Design of multi-stimuli responsive films through layer-by-layer assembly for the control of protein adsorption
(2015)
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- Protein adsorption on a solid artificial surface is a fundamental phenomenon that determines the biological response of a living organism entering any implant material. Therefore, tailoring surfaces for controlled protein adsorption is at the heart of many of today's research fields including biotechnology and materials science. In this context, stimuli-responsive materials that are able to change their properties as a response to a small change in their physico-chemical environment are attracting a great interest as they allow the creation of surfaces with switchable properties for the control of protein adsorption. In this thesis, we report on the design and elaboration of multi stimuli-responsive thin films and nanotubes. For this purpose, we employed the robust and versatile layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly technique to incorporate block copolymers made of poly(acrylic acid) PAA and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) PNIPAM with tunable and well-controlled block lengths. The combination of ellipsometry, quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D), surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and infrared data reveal the possibility to build up (PAH/PAA-b-PNIPAM)n multilayers. The stimuli-responsive properties of these LbL films were examined by monitoring the adsorption of proteins by means of QCM-D and fluorescence measurements, while varying (i) temperature, (ii) pH, (iii) ionic strength, or (iv) a combination of the above parameters. It appears that all these stimuli strongly influence the amount of adsorbed proteins. In short, these new PNIPAM block copolymer-based LbL coatings are easy to build on substrates of various nature and geometry (including nanoporous membranes) and they present highly tunable features. This makes them ideal candidates to be employed for applications requiring the control of protein adsorption, such as protein separation or cell culture.
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Osypova, A. (2015). Design of multi-stimuli responsive films through layer-by-layer assembly for the control of protein adsorption. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/74659