<p>The significant health and economic burdens of bacterial contamination urgently demand novel antimicrobial surface materials. In this paper, we report a method to construct an antibacterial coating on stainless steel surface with zwitterionic polymers. The catechol groups of dopamine contribute to the adhesion on the coating surface, and the bacteriostatic coating, a surface preventing bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation, was prepared by using it as a mediator layer in combination with the electron transfer atom transfer radical polymerization (ARGET-ATRP) to initiate the polymerization reaction of the zwitterionic monomer sulfobetaine methacrylate (SBMA). The effect of the reductant L-ascorbic acid in this system on the construction of the zwitterionic polymer coating was also investigated. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy testing confirmed the successful formation of the zwitterionic polymer coating, while scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy provided more intuitive visualization of the coating. The coated surface exhibited a static contact angle of 4.5 ± 0.5°. Coating stability assays confirmed its good media immersion resistance, while antibacterial adhesion experiments demonstrated that the modified surface retained effective inhibition of about 95% bacterial adhesion following 7&#xa0;day contact with <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> (<i>S. aureus</i>) and <i>Escherichia coli</i> (<i>E. coli</i>) bacterial fluids.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>