Modulable Nanometer-Scale Surface Architecture Using Spin-Coating on an Adsorbed Collagen Layer

Abstract

A strategy was developed to create a modulable polymer surface architecture (topography, chemical composition) at the nanometer scale. Therefore, collagen was first adsorbed on a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) substrate and dried at high or low rate to produce continuous or discontinuous layers, respectively. Solutions of PMMA in chlorobenzene were then spin-coated on top of these collagen layers. The obtained surfaces were investigated using atomic force microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Spin-coating with pure chlorobenzene on the continuous collagen layer produced pits in the PMMA substrate through the collagen layer; spin-coating with PMMA solutions of increasing concentrations progressively led to the formation of a surface covered by particles made of PMMA and collagen, resulting from a combination of dissolution of PMMA from the substrate and deposition of PMMA from the solution. Spin-coating with pure chlorobenzene on the discontinuous collagen layer led to dissolution of PMMA and to its redeposition on the collagen pattern, which served as a template. This provided a surface entirely composed of PMMA, with cavities in the range of 0.1−1 µm diameter and 50−250 nm depth. In this case, the surface relief was independent of the PMMA concentration of the spin-coated solution, the substrate PMMA dissolution and redeposition being the dominant processes.

Network structure of collagen layers absorbed on LB film

“…The rims of the hole-like structures are ranged from 3.0 to 6.5 nm higher compared to the first adlayer. The network structure of collagen layer adsorbed on polymer thin films had been reported [10c, 12,21]. Whereas, it seems that these structures obtained in this work are distinct from that, since the forms of the sides or the walls constructed the network structures are different.…”

“…The fast adsorption of collagen from rat tail tendon at low pH on the surface of glass, siliconized glass and Teflon was reported [6]. In the last decade, the collagen adsorption on mica [4,7,8], thin polymer films such as polyethylene (PE), poly(maleic acid) grafted PE [5,9], polystyrene (PS), tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS) and plasma oxidized polystyrene (PSox), [10] poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) [11], poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) [12], and even selfassembled monolayers (SAM) of CH 3 -terminated alkanethiols [3b,13], and OH-terminated SAM [3b] were extensively investigated [3b, 5,[9][10][11][12][13].…”

Understanding and controlling type I collagen adsorption and assembly at interfaces, and application to cell engineering

“…This was achieved by spin-coating a polymer solution on top of the dewetted collagen layers. Depending on the conditions (choice of solvent, polymer concentration), patterns with different geometries could be obtained [20].…”

Bio-inspired Materials Chemistry

“…A striking increase in papers focused on the nanostructuring or precise binding of biological molecules to technologically relevant solid interfaces was apparent throughout 2001. [3±12] By combining known technologies such as lithography or surface probe microscopies [13,14] and complex functions or recognition abilities of biological systems, [15,16] micro and nanometer-scale architectures that integrate features such as anisotropy, [3,4] specific binding, [5±8] or motion [9±12] have been designed for potential applications in active nanodevices [17±22] dealing with electronic information and mechanical tasks, pre-encoded surface coatings for clinical testing and screening, structure-function elucidation, and new interface probes.…”