AVS 49th International Symposium
    Plasma Science Wednesday Sessions
       Session PS+BI-WeA

Paper PS+BI-WeA7
Study of Adhesion Mechanism of Protein-based Hydrogel to Plasma Treated Polymer Surface

Wednesday, November 6, 2002, 4:00 pm, Room C-103

Session: Plasma Processing for Biocompatible Surfaces
Presenter: O. Zabeida, Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal, Canada
Authors: O. Zabeida, Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal, Canada
M.-P. Faure, Bioartificial Gel Technologies, Canada
J.E. Klemberg-Sapieha, Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal, Canada
L. Martinu, Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal, Canada
Correspondent: Click to Email
Biodegradable protein-based hydrogels (solid water solutions, SWS@super TM@) are a new class of biomaterials with great potential for use in numerous pharmaceutical and medical applications. Since they may contain up to 96% of water, some SWS are rather fragile and difficult to handle and manipulate. This problem can be solved by applying appropriate polymer backings; the latter one has to be surface treated in order to enhance the hydrogel's adhesion. We found that plasma modification of polymer backings can lead to a 20-fold increase of the adhesion force between the SWS and the polymer surface. In the present work we have applied a multitechnique surface analytical approach, including infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry, XPS, AFM, and TOF-SIMS, to investigate the adhesion mechanism of hydrogels to low pressure plasma-treated polymers (polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, and others). The surface chemical structure and morphology are correlated with the adhesion force of the SWS. The results suggest that introduction of amine groups plays a major role in the adhesion improvement, while the surface roughening, polymer chain scission and surface electric charge should also be considered.