Surface engineering of low-fouling and hemocompatible polyethersulfone membranes via in-situ ring-opening reaction

Although many methods have been investigated to enhance the anti-fouling and hemocompatility of polymeric membranes, developing simplified and high-efficiency strategies to synthesize low-fouling and hemocompatible membranes for safe blood purification remains a huge challenge. Herein, we proposed a facile and straightforward approach to solve the aforementioned problems. Firstly, poly (glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) was incorporated into polyethersulfone (PES) membranes via a combination of an in-situ crosslinking polymerization and the phase inversion method. Then, poly (acrylic acid-co-2-acrylanmido-2- methylpropanesulfonic acid) (PAA-AMPS) was covalently coated onto the PES membrane surfaces via an in-situ ring-opening reaction between the PAA and PGMA by simply immersing the membranes into the PAA-AMPS solution. Compared to pristine PES membrane, the protein adsorption amount of the modified membranes reduced; the flux recovery ratio and the resistance to blood cell and bacteria adhesion significantly increased. In addition, the hemo-compatibility of the modified membranes was significantly improved, as indicated by the prolongation of the activated partial thromboplastin time and thrombin time of PES-based membranes by 157% and 584% respectively. The proposed simple and high-efficient strategy in this study might be a powerful tool to fabricate polymeric membranes with various and desired functions.