Eur. Phys. J. D 54, 159-164 (2009)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2008-00217-9

Plasma-induced graft-polymerization of polyethylene glycol acrylate on polypropylene substrates

¹ Dipartimento di Fisica “G. Occhialini”, Universitá degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, p.zza della Scienza, 3, 20126 Milano, Italy
² Dipartimento di Scienza dell'Ambiente e del Territorio, Universitá degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, p.zza della Scienza, 1, 20126 Milano, Italy

Corresponding author: ^a stefano.zanini@mib.infn.it

Received: 3 September 2008
Revised: 21 October 2008
Published online: 14 November 2008

Abstract

A detailed study of argon plasma-induced graft-polymerization of polyethylene glycol acrylate (PEGA) on polypropylene (PP) substrates (membranes and films) is presented. The process consists of four steps: (a) plasma pre-activation of the PP substrates; (b) immersion in a PEGA solution; (c) argon plasma-induced graft-polymerization; (d) washing and drying of the samples. Influence of the solution and plasma parameters on the process efficiency evaluated in terms of amount of grafted polymer, coverage uniformity and substrates wettability, are investigated. The plasma-induced graft-polymerization of PEGA is then followed by sample weighting, water droplet adsorption time and contact angle measurements, attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analyses. The stability of the obtained thin films was evaluated in water and in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) at 37 °C. Results clearly indicates that plasma-induced graft-polymerization of PEGA is a practical methodology for anti-fouling surface modification of materials.