TY - JOUR TI - Protein adsorption and bacterial adhesion on hybrid starch/polycaprolactone block copolymers DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T39023HM PY - 2010 AB - A wide range of block copolymers were made by changing the variables including polymer molecular weight, ratio of PCL to Starch content, di- or tri- block, linear or branched and chemical modifications on hydrophilic blocks with different chemical group. After the synthesis work, fibrinogen adsorption, Salmonella adhesion on 4 different hybrid Starch-PCL-Starch tri block copolymers and 1 poly-(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-PCL-PEG block copolymer coating surfaces were studies while PCL was the control. Besides the protein adsorption and bacterial adhesion assay, atomic force microscopy analysis (AFM), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and contact angle measurements were also performed to better understand the polymers’ surface properties. The surfaces were prepared by dissolving block copolymers in organic solvent followed by spin coating technique. Preliminary data showed that all the block copolymers have improved protein and bacteria repellency than PCL. Among all the block copolymers, YZ3-38 (with quaternary ammonium group), MC4-38 (substituted with N, N-diethylaminoethyl ether), MC4-44 (with hydroxypropyl groups) could dramatically improve the protein repellency, and MC4-38 and MC4-44 could significantly reduce the bacterial adhesion, compared with YZ3-14 (without modification on starch end group). MC4-38 even has comparative or better protein and bacteria repellence than PEG/PCL based copolymer (PEG is the most widely utilized protein and bacteria repellency polymer). Moreover, the data on fibrinogen adsorption, Salmonella adhesion showed that the ability to reduce fibrinogen adsorption at the copolymers surface correlates with the ability to reduce Salmonella adhesion. By evaluating the new copolymer’s surface physical, biological properties, this work is able to show the potential protein anti-adsorption and bacteria anti-adhesion properties of the PCL/Starch based copolymer and contribute to the understanding of the connections between protein adsorption, bacterial adhesion, contact angle and surface topography. KW - Food Science KW - Proteins--Synthesis KW - Bacteria--Adhesion KW - Block copolymers LA - eng ER -