Development and characterization of bio functional coatings on the surface of polymeric films through cold atmospheric pressure plasma and investigation of its biocompatibility

Abstract

Polymers like low density poly-ethylene LDPE and polypropylene PP play a substantial role in biomedical applications due to their exceptional properties such as low density high flexibility and high chemical resistance Conversely their insufficient biocompatibility originating from their fundamental surface properties for instance hydrophobicity reduced adhesion and wettability due to low surface energy make them inefficient in biocompatible applications Hence surface modification is required to alter the surface properties of the polymeric materials without affecting the bulk material Various surface modification techniques such as corona discharge conventional wet chemical treatments UV irradiation newlineand#947;-irradiation and non-thermal plasma based surface treatment techniques have been employed to modify the surface of polymers. Among them, plasma based techniques offer various exciting possibilities in surface modification of polymeric films. In this present work cold atmospheric pressure CAP plasma technique was employed to modify the surface properties hydrophilicity topography and surface chemistry of LDPE and PP films by plasma treatment plasma polymerization and covalent immobilization of biomolecules for improvement of their biocompatible properties newline newline