In this work, our recent efforts in the design and development of superlow fouling materials and the interactions of these materials with serum, blood plasma, mammalian cells, bacteria, and tissue will be reviewed. Molecular design principles of superlow fouling materials and their unique biomolecular interfacial properties will be presented and discussed. Of particular interest are zwitterionic poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) (pSBMA) and poly(carboxybetaine methacrylate) (pCBMA), which are potentially very useful for numerous applications, including biomedical devices, bio-separations, and marine coatings. These materials can be grafted outward from a surface via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), adsorbed onto a surface from a copolymer solution or formed into single or double-network hydrogels. Unlike poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), carboxybetaine-based materials have dual functionality in that they are not only highly resistant to protein adsorption, but also have abundant functional groups available for protein or drug attachment. Thus, these materials are excellent alternatives to PEG-based materials.

Two applications of these materials will be highlighted – (a) biomedical coatings and (b) marine coatings. For biomedical coatings, it will be shown that protein adsorption from 100% blood plasma is only 0.5ng/cm2, which is better than PEG-based materials. For marine coatings, it will be shown that the attachment of soft and hard foulants is very low in both laboratory and field tests.