A recent state of art on polyoxazoline-containing antifouling coatings for biological and environmental applications

Antifouling coatings based on polymers attracted a high interest in the last years in biomedical and marine applications. These materials prevent the adhesion of proteins, cells, bacteria or marine organisms. In particular, a range of hydrophilic polymers such as poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) or hydrophobic ones such as silicone or fluorine are currently used for antifouling coatings. Recently, coatings based on poly(2-alkyl-2-oxazoline)s (POx) have drawn significant attention for antifouling applications due to their unique properties. They constituted a versatile class of biocompatible polymers endowed with a high ability of functionalisation through various macromolecular architectures ranging from linear, branched or brush until the cyclic chains with amazing behaviour. This tutorial review highlights the correlation between POx architectures and antifouling properties for biomedical and marine applications. A brief update of the POx chemistry allowing the synthesis of welldefined macromolecular architectures, the main methods used to decorate solid surfaces by POx chains as well as the antifouling properties of POx surfaces against bacteria, proteins, cells and marine organisms will be presented.