(571be) Optimizing An RF Plasma Reactor for Biocompatible “Smart” Surfaces

Poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (pNIPAM) undergoes a sharp property change in response to a moderate thermal stimulus at physiological temperatures. This has generated great interest in the biomaterials community, and pNIPAM is being investigated as a ?smart? biofouling and release coating to harvest intact cell monolayers. Currently, many techniques are used to deposit pNIPAM, including electron beam irradiation and solution deposition (e.g., silanes and self-assembled monomers). Recently, we constructed a radio frequency (rf) plasma reactor for plasma polymerization of NIPAM from the vapor phase based on a previous design. Plasma polymerization is a sterile, solvent-free, and compatible with surfaces of any geometry or chemistry. These factors make plasma polymerization extremely useful for cell and tissue culture, which often rely on plastic tissue culture plates. Due to the inherently energetic conditions of the plasma, it is extremely important to characterize the impact that parameters such as maximum rf wattage, pressure of deposition, and location/position of the samples in the chamber have on the resulting films. In this work, pNIPAM films resulting from those varying conditions are characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for film composition, interferometry for film thickness, contact angles for thermoresponse, and cell detachment for cell releasing properties.