Impact of Thermal Annealing on Wettability and Antifouling Characteristics of Alginate Poly-L-Lysine Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Films

N. MUZZIO; M. PASQUALE; S.E. MOYA; D. GREGUREC; O. AZZARONI; E. DIAMANTI; J. IRIGOYEN; M. BRINKMANN

COLLOIDS AND SURFACES B-BIOINTERFACES

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2016 vol. 145 p. 328 - 337

0927-7765

Polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) of poly-l-lysine (PLL) and alginic acid sodium salt (Alg) are fabricatedapplying the layer by layer technique and annealed at a constant temperature; 37, 50 and 80◦C, for 72 h.Atomic force microscopy reveals changes in the topography of the PEM, which is changing from a fibrillarto a smooth surface. Advancing contact angle in water varies from 36◦before annealing to 93◦, 77◦and 95◦after annealing at 37, 50 and 80◦C, respectively. Surface energy changes after annealing were calculatedfrom contact angle measurements performed with organic solvents. Quartz crystal microbalance withdissipation, contact angle and fluorescence spectroscopy measurements show a significant decrease inthe adsorption of the bovine serum albumin protein to the PEMs after annealing. Changes in the physicalproperties of the PEMs are interpreted as a result of the reorganization of the polyelectrolytes in thePEMs from a layered structure into complexes where the interaction of polycations and polyanions isenhanced. This work proposes a simple method to endow bio-PEMs with antifouling characteristics andtune their wettability.