Evaluation of mechanism of non-thermal plasma effect on the surface of polypropylene films for enhancement of adhesive and hemo compatible properties

The hydro-carbon based polymers have attracted attention of scientists for its use in bio-medical field as various implants due to inherent flexibility. However, they have poor surface properties; particularly they have low surface energy (SE). Hence, blood components (platelets, blood proteins, etc.)-polymer surface interaction is the major concern when it comes in contact with blood. Thus, surface modification is required to develop the perfect antithrombogenic property without affecting the materials bulk. The present study describes the improvement in adhesive and blood compatible properties of polypropylene (PP) by low temperature (non-thermal) plasma of various gases such as Ar, O2, air and Ar + O2 for biomedical applications. The changes in surface morphological, chemical and hydrophilic modification induced by the gaseous plasma treatment were analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS), electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy and contact angle measurements, respectively. Moreover, the stability of plasma effect was also studied for the different storage conditions. Variation in adhesive strength of the plasma treated PP film was studied by T-Peel and Lap-Shear strength tests. The blood compatibility of the surface modified PP films was investigated by in vitro analysis. It was found that gaseous plasma treatment improved the blood compatibility as well as adhesive strength of the PP films without affecting materials bulk which may be due to the significant morphological and chemical changes induced by the gaseous plasma treatment. Among the various gaseous plasma treatments, Ar + O2 mixture has provided remarkable physico-chemical changes compared with other plasma treatments studied.