Surface properties of biospecific coatings based on polyelectrolyte complexes of maleic acid copolymers

The surface properties of PE with bilayer and multilayer coatings based on polyelectrolyte complexes of the biospecific modified N-vinylpyrrolidone-maleic acid copolymer with chitosan, amphiphilic chitosan, or albumin have been investigated by atomic force microscopy, multiple attenuated total reflection spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and goniometry. The copolymer of N-vinylpyrrolidone and maleic acid contains affine ligands to plasminogen—fragments of α-amino-bonded lysine—and imparts thromboresistant properties to the surface being modified. The surface morphology and the size of particles of deposited intermediate layers of chitosan or albumin differ from those of the bilayer (multilayer) coatings containing an additional external layer of the biospecific copolymer. The deposition of the multilayer polymeric coatings promotes a more thorough coverage of the protected surface. Characteristic absorption bands that demonstrate the presence of the modifying polymers on the PE surface have been revealed; this fact is also confirmed by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data on the atomic composition of the analyzed surface. A significant increase in the hydrophilicity of the modified surface is established by the contact angle technique.