Abstract
The deposition of organic functionalities on biomaterials to immobilize biomolecules is a research area of great interest in the medical field. The surface functionalization of a 3D porous scaffolds of PDLLA with carboxyl (-COOH) and amino (-NH2) groups by cold plasma treatment at atmospheric pressure is described in this paper. Two methods of continuous and pulsed plasma deposition were compared to assess the degree of functionalization of the internal porous 3D scaffold. In particular, the pulsed plasma treatment was found to functionalize uniformly not only the sample surface but also inside the open cavities thanks to its permeability and diffusion in the porous 3D scaffold. The species developed in the plasma were studied by optical emission spectroscopy (OES) technique, while the functionalization of the sponges was evaluated by the Diffuse Reflectance Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (DR-FTIR) technique using also the adsorption of ammonia (NH3) and deuterated water (D2O) probe molecules. The functional groups were deposited only on the front of the sponge, then the structural characterization of both front and back of the sponge has demonstrated the uniform functionalization of the entire scaffold.
Highlights
Polylactic acid is a biodegradable aliphatic polymer existing both as P (L) LA and P (D) LA
The species developed in the plasma were studied by optical emission spectroscopy (OES) technique, while the functionalization of the sponges was evaluated by the Diffuse Reflectance Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (DR-FTIR) technique using the adsorption of ammonia (NH3) and deuterated water (D2O) probe molecules
As-prepared materials and after plasmatreated PDLLA sponges were measured in a DR-FTIR cell (Bruker FT-IR Equinox 55 with a diffuse reflectance cell Collector© Spectra-Tech Inc.) equipped with silicon windows permanently attached to a vacuum line in order to dehydrate all samples under vacuum at room temperature (1 h at 298 K) before the measure
Summary
Polylactic acid is a biodegradable aliphatic polymer existing both as P (L) LA and P (D) LA (hereafter PDLLA). In a previous study [26], our group obtained good results by modification of PLA film surface using an atmospheric pressure plasma treatment. These promising results fostered further studies in order to increase the biocompatibility of 3D structures [27]. The surface modification was obtained by applying two different plasma processes: a first one based on continuous plasma and a second one based on pulsed plasma treatment Such dual technical approach has been chosen in order to evaluate plasma penetration in the 3D framework. To verify COOH and NH2 introduction in the PDLLA 3D scaffold, both treated and untreated samples were characterized by diffuse reflectance infrared spectroscopy (DR-FTIR) using D2O and NH3 as probe molecules
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