Influence of carboxyl and amide groups on in vitro hemocompatibility of sulfonated polypropylene non‐woven fabric

The sulfonated polypropylene non‐woven fabric (PP_NWF) was successfully fabricated via γ‐ray simultaneous radiation‐induced graft polymerization of acrylic acid (AA)/sodium styrenesulfonate (NaSS) and acrylamide (AAm)/NaSS. The existence of graft chains in both PP‐g‐P(AA‐co‐NaSS) and PP‐g‐P(AAm‐co‐NaSS) was proved by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Water contact angle measurement illustrated the sulfonated PP_NWF owning good hydrophilicity. The in vitro hemocompatibility evaluation showed that both PP‐g‐P(AA‐co‐NaSS) and PP‐g‐P(AAm‐co‐NaSS) inhibited effectively the adhesion of platelets and were significantly compatible with erythrocytes. Moreover, no obvious difference was confirmed in the prevention of platelet adhesion and hemolysis ratio between carboxyl and amide groups. However, as compared with that of PP‐g‐P(AAm‐co‐NaSS), PP‐g‐P(AA‐co‐NaSS) exhibited outstanding anticoagulant activity via increased activated partial thromboplastin time and thrombin time. This result indicated that the carboxyl group but not amide group featured strong synergistic effect on the anticoagulant activity of sulfonated PP_NWF. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 45915.