Grafting, hydrophobic enhancing functional molecules

Recently, several studies have immobilized bioactive species, such as enzymes, peptides and proteins, directly onto the polymer surface. The polymer siuface is fimctionalized with one of the above techniques to introduce the desired functional groups to subsequently react with the bioactive molecule. Thus, the functional group or the grafted polymer chains act as a spacer molecule between the material sm-face and bioactive compound. This helps in reducing the steric hindrance and shields the biomolecule from the hydrophobic surface preventing protein denaturation and enhancing bioactivity. The intermediary molecular chemistry can influence the bioactive compound behavior on the material surface. This approach has been used for PDMS used as biosensors [37]. 

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