Polydopamine Assisted Co-Assembly for Fabrication of Zwitterionic Polymer Nanocoating with Efficient Aqueous Lubrication

Low friction and hydrophilic surfaces have critical applications in biomedical devices and implants. This work reports a facile and universal method to prepare hydrophilic, low friction and antifouling coating by dopamine assisted codeposition of chitosan graft zwitterionic copolymer. The effects of polymer concentration on the thickness, hydrophilicity and lubricity of co-deposited coatings were investigated. The results show that the coating thickness decreases slightly with the increase of polymer concentration. The codeposited coating shows superior lubrication performance (friction coefficient μ is 0.015) and antifouling in pure water as well as biological fluids. Furthermore, the versatility of this strategy allows fabrication of lubricious polymer coatings on diverse materials surfaces. This multifunctional coating may find important applications in biomedical devices and implants.