Characterization of Polymer Properties

¹H NMR (500 MHz) and ¹³C NMR (125 MHz) were recorded on a Bruker spectrometer. Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) was performed on PL Aquagel−OH columns (Agilent Technologies) with Trisma buffer as detailed previously^{33 (link)}, with weight- and number-averaged molecular weights (M_w and M_n) and polydispersity index (PDI) of the polymers calculated referring to PEO standards. XPS was carried out on a Thermo Scientific K-Alpha XPS at 200 and 50 eV for survey and high-resolution scans, respectively^{20 (link)}. Survey scan spectra were obtained from five consecutive scans of a randomly chosen area of interest (spot size of 400 × 400 μm²), while high-resolution scan spectra were obtained from 10 consecutive scans. For scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the Ti6Al4V and Ti-pSBMA plates retrieved from the S. aureus culture were fixed with 2% EM-grade glutaraldehyde, sputter-coated with Au, and imaged on a Quanta 200 FEG MKII SEM^{20 (link)}.