Scheme 1.

Survey of compositional and functional features of PEGylated styrene (S)–maleic acid (MA) copolymers (“anchor polymers”, APs), conjugated with different bioactives for adsorptive surface engineering. Center: The AP nomenclature: MW_bb‐MA%‐P_EG/S‐MW_PEG, displaying the modularity of the system in terms of the molecular weight of the backbone (MW_bb in kDa), the percentage of maleic acid groups (MA in %), the number of PEG monomer units per number of styrene monomer units (P_EG/S) and the molecular weight of the PEG chain (MW_PEG). The synthesis strategy uses in a first step (1) amine/anhydride reaction between styrene–maleic anhydride copolymers and amine groups of PEG and N‐(2‐aminoethyl)maleimide. In a second step (2), Michael type (click)‐reaction between N‐(2‐aminoethyl)maleimide and thiol containing cell‐adhesion ligands or between thiol groups of PEG and maleimide prefunctionalized glycosaminoglycans (e.g., heparin‐Mal) and antimicrobials (e.g., hexetidine‐Mal) are performed for functionalization. (Table 1 specifies the parameter space actually used.)