Plasma Surface Modification of Medical Poly Vinyl Chloride for Improvement of Surface Antibacterial Properties

Summary form only given. There is an increasing interest on the development of antibacterial medical polymers in the biomedical industry. Most of antibacterial polymers are made by addition of antibacterial materials generally containing Ag+, but inside humans, these antibacterial polymers may pose health hazards and so alternative polymeric materials must be developed. In this work, plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) is used to modify the surface of medical PVC (poly vinyl chloride) by DP-300 to improve its antibacterial performance. The surface is first activated by O₂ plasma to produce more hydrophilic groups so that DP-300 can be coated well on the surface. Subsequently, Ar plasma-treatment is conducted under optimal conditions to render its surface antibacterial. The modified surface is characterized by XPS, SEM, ATR-FTIR, AFM and contact angle measurements. The antibacterial performance is tested utilizing the method of plate counting of Micrococcus luteus (gram positive) and Escherichia coli (gram negative). The antibacterial performance with time and antibacterial mechanism of PVC are also discussed. Experimental results show that the plasma-treated surface exhibits good antibacterial performance while the favorable bulk properties of PVC are retained