M Sharifian - Plasma Engineering Group-Laser and Plasma Research Institute of Shahid Beheshti University
B Shokri - Plasma Engineering Group-Laser and Plasma Research Institute of Shahid Beheshti University

The area of plasma polymerization is now well recognized as an important part of material science. Plasma polymerization spans over several fields of science, namely chemistry, physics and extends in recent years to biology. Plasma treatment is a well established industrial method for the so called "activation" of polymer surfaces prior to bounding, printing or painting procedures. The nature of the surface of a material such as wettability, chemistry, charge and roughness has been shown to be critical for biocompatibility. There has been extensive research on the development of surface treatment processes for biomaterials in order to improve their cell adhesion property in recent years. Low temperature plasma surface modification is one of the physicochemical methods for modifying membrane surface. This technique employs glow discharge to emit molecules in the system into a plasma state, including electrons, charged ions and free radicals. In general, this plasma modification technique has some technological advantages when compared to other methods. Due to the plasma sheath formation following the work piece border, the modification is fairly uniform over the whole surface even if its geometry is complex. Compared to wet chemical treatment, plasma modification produces much less waste and is therefore advantageous concerning pollution control.

Biocompatibility, Cold plasma, Crosslinking, Hydrophilic polymers