Patent ID: 6924390

Claim:
A method of coating a surface with a reagent, the reagent comprising a nonpolymeric core molecule comprising an aromatic group, the core molecule having attached thereto, either directly or indirectly, one or more substituents comprising negatively charged groups, and two or more photoreactive species attached to the core molecule through one or more spacer groups, wherein the negatively charged grounds are independently selected from salts of organic acids, the organic acids are selected from sulfonic acid, carboxylic acid, and phosphoric acid, the aromatic group is a benzene radical, the photoreactive species are independently aryl ketones, and the spacer groups each independently comprise a radical of the formula: —O—(CH 2 ) n — wherein n is a whole number equal to at least one; the method comprising the steps of: a) applying the reagent to the surface and b) covalently bonding the reagent to the surface by photochemical activation of the photoreactive species.