Novel zwitterionic polyurethanes with good biocompatibility and antibacterial activity

Zwitterionic polyurethanes show great potential applications in biomedical field. This paper reports a novel approach to prepare zwitterionic polyurethanes from N-methyldiethanolamine (MDEA), hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) and 1,3-propanesultone (1,3-PS). Results show that sulfobetaine groups are successfully grafted onto the MDEA based polyurethanes. The introduction of sulfobetaine group improves cell biocompatibility of polyurethanes. Moreover, good antibacterial activity of zwitterions is retained in this MDEA based polyurethanes. This work provides another substantiation to integrate antimicrobial and non-fouling properties. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.