Adsorption of polypropylene oxide-polyethylene oxide type surfactants at surfaces of pharmaceutical relevant materials: effect of surface energetics and surfactant structures

Abstract

Protein therapeutics are exposed to various surfaces during product development, where their adsorption possibly causes unfolding, denaturation, and aggregation. In this paper, we aim to characterize four types of typical surfaces used in the development of biologics: polycarbonate, polyethersulfone, borosilicate glass, and cellulose. Contact angles of these surfaces were measured using three probing liquids: water, formamide, and diidomethane, from which acid/base (AB) and Lifshitz–van der Waals (LW) interaction components were derived. To explore the interactions of surfactants of Pluronics/Poloxamers (PEO-PPO-PEO copolymers) with these surfaces, the adsorption of three Pluronics (F68, F127, and L44) at these surfaces was determined using a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation technique (QCM-D). For hydrophobic surfaces without AB component (polycarbonate and polyethersulfone), these copolymers exhibited significant adsorption with a little dissipation at low concentrations. For hydrophilic surfaces with AB component (cellulose and borosilicate), the adsorption at low-surfactant concentration is low while dissipation is relatively high. Additionally, the chemical properties of Pluronics such as the ratio of PPO to PEO, along with the interaction of PPO with surfaces were observed to play a critical role in adsorption. Furthermore, the interfacial structure of the adsorbed layer was affected by both AB interaction and the presence of PEO block.

Keywords:

• Containers
• surfactants
• surface energetics
• acid-base component
• van der Waals force
• biologics

Acknowledgements

Authors thank the support of DPST management of BMS and Dr. Munir Husain for reading the manuscript, in particular the summer intern program at BMS. In addition, authors also acknowledged the help of Dr. Jacob Albrecht of Department of Chemical Development of BMS and Prof. Stefano Farris of University of Milan for calculating the surface energy values of container surfaces. Specially, authors are grateful to Dr. Mary Krause for her help in preparing figures.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.