TITLE:
A Study of Surface Modification of Poly(lactic-co-glycolic) Acid Using Argon Ion Irradiation
AUTHORS:
Ananta Raj Adhikari, Buddhi Prasanga Tilakaratne, Dharshana Wijesundera, Wei-Kan Chu
KEYWORDS:
Poly(lactic-co-glycolic) Acid Scaffold, Surface Modification, Ion Irradiation
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Surface Engineered Materials and Advanced Technology,
Vol.4 No.6,
October
6,
2014
ABSTRACT: The effect of Argon ion irradiation to the surface properties of poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) was studied. A beam of 170 keV Argon ions was implanted at different fluencies (1 × 1012, 1 × 1013, 1 × 1014, and 1 × 1015 ions/cm2). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to analyze the evolution of the bonding microstructure of PLGA due to irradiation. Surface morphology was monitored using atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM analysis shows that film roughness increased to maximum at the dose of 1 × 1014 ions/cm2 where the formations of hillocks were also detected. Hydrophilicity of PLGA is important for their applications in biomedicine such as bioscaffolds. Hydrophilicity was monitored using water contact angle measurements for both unmodified and ion-modified PLGA. It was observed that hydrophilicity of PLGA changes with the ion irradiation. This demonstrates that ion irradiation can be an alternative approach to control hydrophilicity of PLGA. PLGA scaffolds modified with ion irradiation could therefore be more suitable for the biomedical applications.