Atmospheric air plasma pre-activation and customizable covalent functionalization of PVDF-membranes of microtiter filter plates

Microtiter-plate-based systems are unified platforms of high-throughput experimentation (HTE). These polymeric devices are used worldwide on a daily basis—mainly in the pharmaceutical industry—for parallel syntheses, reaction optimization, various preclinical studies and high-throughput screening methods. Accordingly, laboratory automation today aims to handle these commercially available multiwell plates, making developments focused on their modifications a priority area of modern applied research. We performed the covalent functionalization of the porous PVDF-membrane of microtiter filter plates as the essence of conventional and common sandwich plate systems by introducing a generalizable method. After surface-activation of the indifferent membrane polymer, customizable functionalization becomes feasible by covalently attached monofunctional molecular linkers. The study was designed with future adaptability, and thus, industrially widespread atmospheric plasma and two different chemical treatments were investigated and compared in terms of practical implementation, polarization effects, extent of labeling, effects on morphology and porosity as well as on permeability. For critical comparison, contact angle measurements, surface ATR-FTIR, ¹H-NMR, ¹⁹F-NMR, UV–Vis spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and permeability tests were used.