Determination of force-free wet adhesion of mussel-inspired polymers to spin labeled surface

Abstract

Hydration repulsive forces oppose the adhesive interactions, especially in the force-free conditions. Here, we studied spontaneous wet adhesion of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) functionalized poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) polymers inspired by marine mussels. Using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, we can monitor spontaneous adhesion of DOPA containing polymer to suspended spin labeled hydrophobic polystyrene nanobeads at molecular level. The surface coverage up to 82% is obtained from EPR measurements. However, in the force-free condition, EPR measurements do not show any detectable DOPA based adhesion to hydrophilic silica nanobead.