Improved blood compatibility of polyethersulfone membrane with a hydrophilic and anionic surface

In this study, a novel triblock copolymer of poly (styrene-co-acrylic acid)-b-poly (vinyl pyrrolidone)-b-poly(styrene-co-acrylic acid) (P(St-co-AA)-b-PVP-b-P(St-co-AA)) is synthesized via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization, and used for the modification of blood contacting surface of polyethersulfone (PES) membrane to improve blood compatibility. The synthesized block copolymer can be directly blended with PES to prepare PES membranes by a liquid–liquid phase separation technique. The compositions and structure of the PES membranes are characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), ATR-FTIR, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM); the surface charge density of the modified PES membrane was measured by Zeta-potential; the blood compatibility of the PES membranes was assessed by detecting bovine serum albumin (BSA) and bovine serum fibrinogen (BFG) adsorption, platelet adhesion, activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), platelet activation, and thrombin–antithrombin III (TAT) generation. The results indicated that the blood compatibility of the modified PES membrane was improved due to the membrane surface modification by blending the amphiphilic block copolymer and the surface segregation of the block copolymer.

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► A block copolymer was synthesized via controllable RAFT polymerization.
► Surface segregation resulted in PES matrix with a hydrophilic and anionic surface.
► The modified PES membranes showed good blood compatibility.