Electroactive Hydrophilic
Polylactide Surface by Covalent
Modification with Tetraaniline
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Abstract
Covalent surface functionalization is presented as a
versatile
tool to increase the hydrophilicity and to introduce the electroactivity
of polyester films. Acrylic acid and maleic anhydride were photografted
onto a polylactide (PLA) surface with a “grafting from”
method to increase the surface wettability, and the subsequent coupling
of conductive aniline oligomer was used to introduce electroactivity
to the PLA surface. The photopolymerization of maleic anhydride and
acrylic acid and the coupling of aniline tetramer (AT) were characterized
by FT-IR, UV, and TGA. The surface morphology of the PLA surface before
and after modification was examined by scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). A medium hydrophilic surface
of PLA was achieved by surface modification with maleic anhydride,
acrylic acid, and AT. An electrically conductive surface was obtained
after grafting with AT, and the conductivity increased with increasing
AT content on the surface. The hydrophilic and electroactive surface
of polyesters while retaining their bulk properties offers new possibilities
in biomedical applications, such as bone, cartilage, neural, and cardiovascular
tissue engineering