Polyethyleneimine-assisted co-deposition of polydopamine coating with enhanced stability and efficient secondary modification

The stability and grafting efficiency are important for polydopamine (pDA) coatings used as platforms for secondary grafting. In this work, polyethyleneimine (PEI) was co-deposited with dopamine on various materials (PP, PTFE and PVC), then immersed in a 1.0 M HCl solution or 1.0 M NaOH solution to investigate the detachment of the coatings using UV-vis spectroscopy, SEM, FTIR spectroscopy and XPS, and the effect of PEI molecular weight on the secondary grafting of heparin on the pDA/PEI coating was investigated through clotting time tests. The results showed that the detachment rates of the pDA/PEI coating (14.6%, 23.7%) co-deposited on PTFE in 1.0 M HCl or 1.0 M NaOH solutions were both lower than that of the pDA coating (35.0%, 74.6%), indicating that pDA/PEI coatings could better remain on substrates in a 1.0 M NaOH solution. Besides, pDA/PEI coatings on a PP membrane with both a higher deposition density and stability could be obtained when the mass ratio of DA/PEI was 2 : 1–1 : 1 and PEI molecular weight was 600 Da. After grafting heparin, it was found that the pDA/PEI coating with lower molecular weight (600 Da and 1800 Da) PEI could achieve a higher grafting density of heparin with a longer clotting time. Thus, the results provided better understanding about the stability of pDA/PEI coatings and efficiency of heparin grafting.