Dopamine-functionalized poloxamers for antibacterial coating

Abstract Over the past decades, great progress has been made in antifouling materials such as zwitterionic polymers for many arenas, especially biomedical devices. However, many difficulties such as high cost and large-scale preparation of antifouling materials remain to be solved as of today. In this study, several dopamine-functionalized poloxamers (DPs) were synthesized. Staphylococcus aureus adhesion assay demonstrated that DPs possessed powerful antibacterial performance, due to long poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) segments and high hydrophile-lipophile balance (HLB) values. Also, poloxamer 407 without incorporating dopamine possess comparable antibacterial performance as compared with those dopamine-modified formulation. Poloxamers407 and poloxamer188 for pharmaceutical excipients approved by FDA, have a potential to serve as antifouling materials for biomedical devices.