Grafting of Poly(ionic liquid) Brushes through Fe⁰-Mediated Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization for Marine Antifouling

Abstract

Surface-tethered poly(ionic liquid) brushes have attracted considerable attention in widespread fields, from bioengineering to marine antifouling. However, their applications have been constrained due to the poor polymerization efficiency and sophisticated operation process. In this work, we efficiently synthesized the poly(ionic liquid) brushes with unparalleled speed (up to 98 nm h^-1) through Fe⁰-mediated surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (Fe⁰ SI-ATRP) while consuming only microliter of monomer solution under ambient conditions. We also demonstrated that poly(ionic liquid) brushes with gradient thickness and wettability were easily accessible by regulating the distance between the opposite plates of Fe⁰ SI-ATRP. Moreover, the resultant poly(ionic liquid) brushes presented excellent antibacterial activities against Escherichia coli (99.2%) and Bacillus subtilis (88.1%) after 24 h and low attachment for proteins and marine algae (≤5%) for over 2 weeks. This research provided pathways to the facile and controllable fabrication of poly(ionic liquid) materials for marine antifouling applications.