Blood compatibility comparison for polysulfone membranes modified by grafting block and random zwitterionic copolymers via surface-initiated ATRP

For blood-contacting materials, good blood compatibility, especially good anticoagulant property is of great importance. Zwitterionic polymers have been proved to be resistant to nonspecific protein adsorption and platelet adhesion; however, their anticoagulant property is always inadequate. In this study, two kinds of zwitterionic copolymers (sulfobetaine methacrylate and sodium p-styrene sulfonate random copolymer and block copolymer) with sulfonic groups were covalently grafted from polysulfone (PSf) membranes via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) to improve blood compatibility. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), attenuated total reflectance–Fourier transform infrared spectra (ATR–FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and static water contact angle (WCA) were applied to characterize the morphologies, chemical compositions and hydrophilicity of the modified membranes. All the zwitterionic copolymer modified membranes showed improved blood compatibility, especially the anticoagulant property was obviously enhanced compared to the pristine PSf and simple zwitterionic polymer modified membranes. We also found that the random copolymer modified membranes showed better resistance to platelet adhesion than the block copolymer modified membranes. The zwitterionic copolymer modified membranes with integrated antifouling property and blood compatibility provided wide choice for specific applications such as hemodialysis, hemofiltration, and plasma separation.