Surfaces functionalized with hierarchical polymer brushes and their biomedical applications

Abstract

Surface modification is one of the best ways to impart the biological functions and properties to the surface of biomedical material. Surface modification with polymer brushes has been developed rapidly due to the advantages of simple preparation, controllable surface chemistry, good durability and stability. Among them, the hierarchical polymer brushes have aroused great interests due to the characteristic that the different grafted chain segments are constructed on different spatial layers, which largely reduce the mutual interferences (e.g., grafted density, biological functions) between the different grafted chain segments. More importantly, by rational structure and composition design, the different responses of the different grafted chain segments to external environments (e.g., temperature, solvent, pH) have been used to facilely obtain biological adaptability, which is difficult to be provided by the single-layer polymer brushes. In this review, we present a descriptive review of the construction method of hierarchical polymer brush and the relationship between surface structure and performances. Furthermore, based on our group's work, the research progress of hierarchical polymer brush in the biomedical application is summarized, and the related prospect is highlighted as well.