In this study, the polydopamine (PDA) film was coated on polished 316Lss and then thermally treated at 150 °C (labeled as PDA-Th150), and the stability of coatings was also investigated. Straining test indicated that PDA-Th150 coating performed better in affording sufficient adherence to 316 L SS substrate. Moreover, both PDA and PDA-Th150 coating suffered slight swelling during immersion in deionized water (pH = 6.5). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results showed that during immersion, latent nucleophilic reaction via amines inside PDA coating occurred. This led to an enhanced cross-linking and thus gradually promoted the coating stability. Moreover, larger amount of bovine serum albumin (BSA) was immobilized onto PDA-Th150 coating and performed well in anti-platelet adhesion. A high retention of immobilized BSA was observed even after immersion for 30 days. These tests suggested that PDA was stable enough and performed well in surface functionalization, which might enrich the research and application of PDA.
Keywords: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS); catechol; polydopamine; stability; thermal.