A comprehensive understanding how storage conditions affect functional surface properties of antifouling organic coatings remains a persistent challenge across industry and research worldwide. This study investigates the long-term storage stability of state-of-art antifouling functionalizable zwitterionic poly(carboxybetaine acrylamide) (pCBAA) brushes using spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS), surface plasmon resonance (SPR), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The pCBAA brushes, prepared by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) on SPR substrates, were subjected to various storage conditions for 43 days: kept in dry state at room temperature or −20 °C, and immersed in water or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and kept at 6 °C or −20 °C. The IRRAS, SE and AFM data confirm only negligible release of pCBAA under these storage conditions. However, SE indicated a slightly lower brush swelling ratio depending on storage. The SPR was used to evaluate the resistance of unmodified pCBAA, pCBAA activated by EDC/NHS chemistry and deactivated with 2-(2-aminoethoxy)acetic acid (AEAA), and pCBAA functionalized with anti-E. coli antibodies against fouling from undiluted human blood plasma. The results confirm that pCBAA brushes maintain or may even improve their exceptional antifouling performance after prolonged storage, while displaying a slight deterioration in their binding capacity for anti-E. coli antibodies.

全面了解储存条件如何影响防污有机涂层的功能性表面特性仍然是全球工业和研究领域持续面临的挑战。本研究使用光谱椭圆光度术 (SE)、红外反射吸收光谱 (IRRAS)、表面等离子共振 (SPR)、原子力显微镜（AFM）和X射线光电子能谱（XPS）。在SPR基底上通过表面引发原子转移自由基聚合（SI-ATRP）制备的pCBAA刷在不同的储存条件下放置43天：在室温或-20℃下保持干燥状态，并浸入水中或磷酸盐缓冲盐水（PBS）并保存在6°C或-20°C。IRRAS、SE 和 AFM 数据证实，在这些储存条件下，pCBAA 的释放量可以忽略不计。然而，SE 表明刷溶胀率略低，具体取决于储存情况。SPR 用于评估未修饰的 pCBAA、由 EDC/NHS 化学物质激活并用 2-(2-氨基乙氧基)乙酸 (AEAA) 灭活的 pCBAA 以及用抗大肠杆菌抗体功能化的 pCBAA 对未稀释的人污垢的耐受血浆。结果证实，pCBAA 刷在长期储存后仍能保持甚至可能提高其卓越的防污性能，同时其抗大肠杆菌抗体的结合能力略有下降。