Antimicrobial and antifouling conformal hydrogel coatings

A substrate having a conformal hydrogel coating prepared by the process of:

• applying an aqueous pre-hydrogel solution to a substrate, wherein the aqueous pre-hydrogel solution comprises a mixture of a monomer with antimicrobial activity, a monomer with antifouling activity, and a polymer selected from the group of agar, chitosan, an N-isopropylacrylamide copolymer, a poloxamer, a poly(ethylene oxide)/poly(lactic acid) block copolymer, poly(ethylene oxide)/poly(propylene oxide) block copolymers, alginate, dextran, and copolymers thereof, which mixture when polymerized together forms a hydrogel;
• polymerizing the aqueous pre-hydrogel solution, thereby forming a coated substrate having a conformal hydrogel coating and a non-conformal hydrogel coating;
• contacting the coated substrate with a swelling agent;
• and
• removing the non-conformal hydrogel coating from the coated substrate, thereby leaving the conformal hydrogel coating on the substrate to form the hydrogel-coated substrate.