Functional polymeric coatings: thiol-maleimide ‘click’ chemistry as a powerful surface functionalization tool

Abstract

Functional polymeric coatings are instrumental in enabling many of the current device technologies to address challenges in disease diagnostics and their treatment. Thus, facile fabrication of readily functionalizable polymeric coatings is an actively pursued area of research. Over the past several years, our research group has established that the thiol-maleimide-based conjugation strategy provides a highly efficient avenue to obtain functionalizable polymeric coatings. In this feature article, we summarize in a chronological fashion, our efforts in the area of synthesis and application of maleimide-containing polymeric materials and coatings. Hopefully, this feature article provides the researchers with a quick overview of our contributions in the area, and the vast potential of maleimide-group containing polymeric materials to fabricate a variety of readily functionalizable soft interfaces for various biomedical applications.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• polymeric coatings
• functionalization
• click chemistry
• thiol-maleimide addition
• surfaces

Acknowledgements

A.S. thanks all the present and past members of the research group who have contributed towards the exploration of the design, synthesis and application of maleimide-containing polymeric materials over the years.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Busra Cengiz

Busra Cengiz completed her undergraduate education in the Department of Chemistry Education at Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey. She received her M.S. degree from the Department of Chemistry at Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. Her M.S. thesis under the supervision of Dr. Amitav Sanyal explored novel approaches to fabricate metal nanoparticle based microcapsules for stimuli-responsive release. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD in the same group, where she is exploring carbon-nanomaterial based polymeric nanocomposites for drug delivery.

Nora Ejderyan

Nora Ejderyan complete her undergraduate studies in the Department of Chemistry at Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. She obtained her M.S. degree in chemistry at the same department under the supervision of Dr. Amitav Sanyal, where her thesis focused on the development of novel stimuli-responsive polymer-coated magnetic nanoparticles. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD studies in the same group, where she is developing new stimuli-responsive polymer-nanoparticle composites for applications in targeted drug delivery.

Amitav Sanyal

Amitav Sanyal obtained his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, India. He received his Ph.D. from Boston University (USA), in the area of asymmetric organic synthesis. During post-doctoral work at University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA, he worked in the area of renewable polymeric coatings. Currently, he is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. His research focuses on the design of novel polymeric materials such as coatings, hydrogels and nanofibers for biomedical applications. He has authored more than 116 publications in international journals, contributed many book chapters, and holds several patents in areas related to his research interests.