While polyethersulfone (PES) represents outstanding oxidative, thermal and hydrolytic stability as well as
good mechanical and film-forming properties, the hemocompatibility of PES membranes must be
dramatically enhanced to reduce injections of anticoagulants during hemodialysis. In this study, a series
of biological macromolecules with heparin-like chains were synthesized via reversible addition
fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization to design anticoagulant membrane surfaces. When
the synthesized copolymers were used as additives to modify the PES membrane using the phase
separation method, the functional groups of the copolymers migrated and formed a negatively charged
coating on the membrane surface. The modified PES membrane blended with a heparin-like block
copolymer showed prolonged blood coagulation time and thereby good hemocompatibility. In addition,
the clotting time of the modified membrane was enhanced with increasing amounts of the heparin-like
amphiphilic tri-block copolymer. Furthermore, the results of the cell morphology and the 3-(4,5-
dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay suggest that the cytocompatibility
increases due to the addition of heparin-like additives. Thus, the heparin-like surface modification
method seemed to be a promising approach for application in the biomedical field.