Creating Nano-engineered Biomaterials with Well-Defined Surface Descriptors

Abstract

The importance of nanostructured surfaces in a range of technological and biological processes is welldocumented within literature, yet often ill-understood. Simple and reliable methods for the preparation of nanotextured surfaces are required to advance both fundamental understandings of nanoscale phenomena and our capacity to design nano-engineered materials for specific applications. Nanoengineered surfaces are, for instance, needed to shed light on the effect of nanostructures' size and density on immune cells cytokine production. In applied bioengineering, nanostructured artificial surfaces could be specifically tailored to enhance the osteo-integration of implants. This study presents a versatile, plasma polymer enabled method for the generation of surfaces with well-defined nanotopography and tailored outermost surface chemistry. This was achieved by finely controlling the covalent bonding of gold nanoparticles of desired size to plasma-deposited poly(methyloxazoline) interlayer deposited on the material substrate. An additional 5 nm thin polymer was deposited over the nanostructures providing a uniformly tailored outermost surface chemistry while preserving the topography. This rapid, versatile, substrate independent, and scalable strategy for the preparation of a well-defined nanotopography surface has promising prospects in many fields relying on surface engineering, including food and membrane technologies, biomaterial and environmental engineering, sensing, marine sciences, and even pollution control.

Nanotopography‐Induced Unfolding of Fibrinogen Modulates Leukocyte Binding and Activation

“…This approach results in the irreversible binding of nanoparticles to Meox surfaces . The incubation time and NP concentration were adjusted for the three different NPs sizes in order to achieve a controlled number density of NPs assembled on to the surface . In a final step, a 5 nm thin overcoating of Meox chemistry was deposited on top of the surface‐bound NPs to provide an outermost surface of uniform chemical composition for the following biological studies.…”

“…Electrostatic considerations further add to the effect of nanotopography size. The presence of the positively charged alpha‐C chain will indeed enhance the electrostatic attractions between the fibrinogen and the surface (Meox is negatively charged at physiological pH) . With the spiral chain between two D‐domains being 17 nm long, even side‐on orientation of the fibrinogen onto a 16 nm nanosphere would lead to the alignment of D‐domain to the upper hemisphere of the 16 nm feature (Figure A).…”

“…Immobilization of Gold NPs and Overcoating : Model surfaces decorated with an equal number of surface‐bound NPs were prepared with three different NPs size by controlling the suspension dilution and the immobilization time onto plasma polymerized methyl oxazoline surfaces (Meox), as previously reported . The experimental pH was kept at pH 4.…”

Nanoengineered Antibacterial Coatings and Materials: A Perspective

“…These rings are very reactive to carboxyl acid groups in a one-step, click type reaction without the need for any catalysts or intermediates. This special property allows for covalent binding of biomolecules, ligands and nanoparticles containing carboxyl acid groups, which provide platforms for developing diagnostic technologies and tools for interrogating biological phenomena occurring at the material interphase [55][56][57][58]. Oxazoline derived plasma polymer coatings were also demonstrated to efficiently modulate the immune responses exhibited by the reduction in secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the composition of protein corona forming on the biomaterial surface [15,56,59].…”

Deposition of 2‐oxazoline‐based plasma polymer coatings using atmospheric pressure helium plasma jet

“…This makes the process cost‐effective, commercially attractive and environmentally friendly. Recently, our team pioneered low‐pressure RF plasma for the deposition of oxazoline‐based coatings for biomedical applications utilising 2‐methyl‐2‐oxazoline (OX) and 2‐ethyl‐2‐oxazoline as precursors . By tuning extrinsic plasma parameters such as applied RF power, plasma mode, duty cycle, and oxazoline monomer flow rate it was possible to achieve plasma coatings with excellent stability, biocompatibility and low biofouling properties.…”