Synthesis of membrane adsorbers via surface initiated ATRP of 2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate from microporous PVDF membranes

Surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) was used to tether poly(2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) onto microporous PVDF membranes in order to synthesize membrane adsorbers for protein adsorption. The alkaline treatment and bromine addition reaction were used to anchor ATRP initiators on membrane surface. Then PDMAEMA was grafted from the membrane surface via SI-ATRP. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed the chemical composition and surface topography of the PVDF-g-PDMAEMA membrane surfaces. These results showed that PDMAEMA was grafted from the membrane surface successfully and a grafting yield as high as 1500 μg/cm² was achieved. The effects of the grafting time and the density of initiators on the static and dynamic binding capacity of bovine serum albumin (BSA) were systematically investigated. Both the static and dynamic binding capacities increase with the bromination and polymerization time. However, the benefits of the initiator density on binding capacities are limited by the graft density of PDMAEMA chains.