Plastic Trash goes Biohybrid - Rapid and Selective Functionalization of Inert Plastic Surfaces with Biomolecules

The covalent functionalization of inert polymers such as polypropylene with biomolecules for biocompatible or biosensor surfaces is challenging. Here we present a powerful approach to covalently modify inert macromolecular surfaces with biomacromolecules reusing old plastic material. A special emphasis was placed on easily accessible materials and a process which is easy, fast, efficient, cheap, and reliable. Plastic trash (lids from Eppendorf(R) pipet tip containers) was used as a polymer substrate to demonstrate the use/reuse of commercial packing material to covalently modify this material with a thin reactive plasma polymerized maleic anhydride nano-layer network, which can be subsequently modified with biomolecules for various applications, e.g., in tissue engineering and as biochips.