Blood Platelet’s Behavior on Nanostructured Superhydrophobic Surface

Abstract

Regular arrays of micro-pillars and nano-grooves structures on the silicon wafer are fabricated by using soft lithography, and the three dimension morphology of textured surface is observed by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM). The static water contact angles are measured by using contact angle meter to characterize the wettabilities of these surfaces. To investigate how the presence of topography and the variations of wettability affect the haemocompatibility of textured surface contacted with blood, different patterned surfaces are designed and fabricated, and blood platelet adhesion test is carried out on these surfaces. The adhesion and coagulation of platelets are inspected by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Experimental data presented in this paper indicate that different surface roughness and wettability are the important factors for blood platelet adhesion. The amount of adsorbed blood platelet is low on textured surfaces, compared with that on the flat surface. Especially, there is no coagulation and activation on the surface with nanometer grooves. That is to say, the superhydrophobic surface is apt to decrease blood platelet adhesion. The study suggests that surface with suitable wettabililty and textured structures exhibits superior blood compatibility.