UV Grafting of a Vinyl Monomer Onto a Methanol Plasma Polymer

We have shown that it is possible to graft a vinyl monomer from a plasma polymer surface in the presence of UV light without the use of a photoinitiator. A polyethylene glycol methacrylate (PEGMA) coating can be grown from the surface of a methanol plasma polymer via photopolymerization. It is proposed that the graft polymerization occurs from the generation and initiation of surface radicals by the applied UV light, in the methanol plasma polymer and the PEGMA monomer in solution. The coatings were characterised using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). AFM analysis showed the interaction forces obtained between a silica probe and the PEGMA graft coatings to be repulsive and long-ranged. The PEGMA coating was shown to be low fouling when placed in a protein solution.