Anti-fouling epoxy coatings for optical biosensor application based on phosphorylcholine

Epoxy polymers containing phosphorylcholine (PC) groups were prepared by the copolymerization of glycidyl methacrylate and 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC), and used as a coating material for an oxygen sensing membrane, in order to protect it against bio-fouling by microorganisms. The copolymers had good film forming properties. The cured polymer films had excellent adhesion properties and were transparent at the wavelength of more than 300 nm. The cross-linking reaction of the polymer films increased with increasing amount of MPC units in the copolymer, and the addition of an aliphatic diamine significantly enhanced the cross-linking reaction of the copolymer films. The cured epoxy copolymers show a high anti-fouling effect, which was observed by incubating E. coli on the copolymer films. The coatings of the cured epoxy copolymer did not interfere with the performance of the optical oxygen sensing membrane. Thus, the epoxy copolymers containing PC groups are very useful as an anti-fouling coating material for the optical biosensing membranes.