Treatment of Immobilized Collagen on Poly(tetrafluoroethylene) Nanoporous Membrane with Plasma

Abstract

In this work we treated type I collagen immobilized on different nanoporous membranes with microwave (MW) argon plasma. Hydrophobic and hydrophilic nanoporous substrates of poly(tetrafluoroethylene), with thickness varying from 35 to 70 µm and a 100 nm pore size, were employed as support for collagen immobilization. On the hydrophilic nanoporous membrane, after the MW plasma treatment, the immobilized collagen changed its morphology and showed a tendency to self-assemble in quasi-regular forms as microellipsoids. The presence of collagen immobilized on the nanoporous membrane after the MW plasma treatment was analyzed by detecting in the Raman spectrum an α-helix form, NH deformation vibration, amide II band at 1550 cm-1, a characteristic group frequency of the collagen macromolecule.