The Covalent Tethering of Poly(ethylene glycol) to Nylon 6 Surface via N,N′-Disuccinimidyl Carbonate Conjugation: A New Approach in the Fight against Pathogenic Bacteria

Abstract

Different forms of unmodified and modified Poly(ethylene glycols) (PEGs) are widely used as antifouling and antibacterial agents for biomedical industries and Nylon 6 is one of the polymers used for biomedical textiles. Our recent study focused on an efficient approach to PEG immobilization on a reduced Nylon 6 surface via N,N′–disuccinimidyl carbonate (DSC) conjugation. The conversion of amide functional groups to secondary amines on the Nylon 6 polymer surface was achieved by the reducing agent borane-tetrahydrofuran (BH3–THF) complex, before binding the PEG. Various techniques, including water contact angle and free surface energy measurements, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, were used to confirm the desired surface immobilization. Our findings indicated that PEG may be efficiently tethered to the Nylon 6 surface via DSC, having an enormous future potential for antifouling biomedical materials. The bacterial adhesion performances against S. aureus and P. aeruginosa were examined. In vitro cytocompatibility was successfully tested on pure, reduced, and PEG immobilized samples.