Surface characterization and biodegradation behavior of magnesium implanted poly(l-lactide/caprolactone) films

Biopolymers are great source for medical applications such as drug delivery, wound patch, artificial tissue studies etc., food packaging, cosmetic applications etc. due to their biocompatibility and biodegradability. Particularly, the biodegradation ability of a biomaterial makes it even advantageous for the applications. The more tunable the biodegradation rate the more desired the biopolymers. There are many ways to tune degradation rate including surface modification. In this study ion implantation method applied to biopolymer surface to determine its effect on biodegradation rate. In this study, surface modification of poly(l-lactide/caprolactone) copolymer film is practiced via Mg-ion-implantation using a MEVVA ion source. Mg ions were implanted at a fluence of 1 × 1015 ions/cm2 and ion energy of 30 keV. Surface characterization of Mg-ion-implanted samples is examined using Atomic Force Microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, contact angle measurement and FT-IR Spectroscopy. These analyses showed that the surface become more hydrophilic and rougher after the ion implantation process which is advantageous for cell attachment on medical studies. The in vitro enzymatic degradation of Mg-implanted samples was investigated in Lipase PS containing enzyme solution. Enzymatic degradation rate was examined by mass loss calculation and it is shown that Mg-implanted samples lost more than 30% of their weight while control samples lost around 20% of their weight at the end of the 16 weeks. The evaluation of the results confirmed that Mg-ion-implantation on poly(l-lactide/caprolactone) films make the surface rougher and more hydrophilic and changes the organic structure on the surface. On the other hand, ion implantation has increased the biodegradation rate.