Tag: tapping mode

Nano- and Micro-Patterned S-, H-, and X-PDMS for Cell-Based Applications: Comparison of Wettability, Roughness, and Cell-Derived Parameters

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is a promising biomaterial for generating artificial extracellular matrix (ECM) like patterned topographies, yet its hydrophobic nature limits its applicability to cell-based approaches.” Although plasma treatment can enhance the wettability of PDMS, the surface is known to recover its hydrophobicity within a few hours after exposure to air. *

To investigate the capability of a novel PDMS-type (X-PDMS) for in vitro based assessment of physiological cell properties, the authors of the article “Nano- and Micro-Patterned S-, H-, and X-PDMS for Cell-Based Applications: Comparison of Wettability, Roughness, and Cell-Derived Parameters” cited here, designed and fabricated plane as well as nano- and micrometer-scaled pillar-patterned growth substrates using the elastomer types S-, H- and X-PDMS, which were fabricated from commercially available components.*

To assess their applicability to cell-based approaches, Marina Scharin-Mehlmann et al., characterized the generated surfaces using water contact angle (WCA) measurement and atomic force microscopy (AFM) as indicators of wettability and roughness, respectively.*

The surface roughness of the samples was determined by Atomic Force Microscopy in tapping mode. For plane and flat pillar patterned PDMS (130 and 190 nm nominal pillar height) surfaces, a standard tapping mode AFM probe ( Pointprobe® NCHR, NanoWorld) was used. For patterned surfaces with pillars of 1,800 nm height tilt compensated high-aspect-ratio AFM probes (AR5T-NCHR, NanoWorld) were used. The scanning area was 50 × 50 μm2, the scanning rate 0.5 Hz. In this scanning area each roughness value (root mean square roughness Rq) was evaluated from five 10 × 10 μm2 areas.*

Figure 5 from “Nano- and Micro-Patterned S-, H-, and X-PDMS for Cell-Based Applications: Comparison of Wettability, Roughness, and Cell-Derived Parameters” by Marina Scharin-Mehlmann et al.: AFM analysis of structured PDMS substrates. (A) Three-dimensional reconstructions of fabricated pillar-structured PDMS substrates recorded by AFM. (B) Mean pillar height of plane S-, H-, and X-PDMS as measured by AFM. All data are significantly different at a significance level of P ≤ 0.001 as evaluated by two-way ANOVA unless otherwise indicated. Color coding of statistical analysis: within group “130 nm,” purple; within group “190 nm,” pink.

Figure 5 from “Nano- and Micro-Patterned S-, H-, and X-PDMS for Cell-Based Applications: Comparison of Wettability, Roughness, and Cell-Derived Parameters” by Marina Scharin-Mehlmann et al.: AFM analysis of structured PDMS substrates. (A) Three-dimensional reconstructions of fabricated pillar-structured PDMS substrates recorded by AFM. (B) Mean pillar height of plane S-, H-, and X-PDMS as measured by AFM. All data are significantly different at a significance level of P ≤ 0.001 as evaluated by two-way ANOVA unless otherwise indicated. Color coding of statistical analysis: within group “130 nm,” purple; within group “190 nm,” pink.

*Marina Scharin-Mehlmann, Aaron Häring, Mathias Rommel, Tobias Dirnecker, Oliver Friedrich, Lothar Frey and Daniel F. Gilbert
Nano- and Micro-Patterned S-, H-, and X-PDMS for Cell-Based Applications: Comparison of Wettability, Roughness, and Cell-Derived Parameters
Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. 2018; 6: 51
DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2018.00051

Please follow this external link to view the full article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5938557/

Open Access: The article «Nano- and Micro-Patterned S-, H-, and X-PDMS for Cell-Based Applications: Comparison of Wettability, Roughness, and Cell-Derived Parameters» by Marina Scharin-Mehlmann, Aaron Häring, Mathias Rommel, Tobias Dirnecker, Oliver Friedrich, Lothar Frey and Daniel F. Gilbert (2018) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

New Insights in the Ion Beam Sputtering Deposition of ZnO-Fluoropolymer Nanocomposites

Surface modification treatments able to confer antistain/antibacterial properties to natural or synthetic materials are receiving increasing attention among scientists. Ion beam co-sputtering (IBS) of zinc oxide (ZnO) and poly-tetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) targets allows for the preparation of novel multifunctional coatings composed of antimicrobial ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) finely dispersed in an antistain PTFE polymeric matrix.*

In the article “New Insights in the Ion Beam Sputtering Deposition of ZnO-Fluoropolymer Nanocomposites” Maria Chiara Sportelli, Marco Valentini, Rosaria Anna Picca, Antonella Milella, Angelo Nacci, Antonio Valentini and Nicola Cioffi describe the use of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for the characterization of the IBS deposited coatings in order to obtain information on the materials’ surface composition, with deep insight into the nanocoatings’ morphology as a function of the ZnONP loadings.*

The AFM micrographs shown in this article were acquired on 150-nm-thick films in dynamic (“tapping”) mode, in air, using NanoWorld Pointprobe® NCL AFM probes.

Figure 2 from “New Insights in the Ion Beam Sputtering Deposition of ZnO-Fluoropolymer Nanocomposites” by Maria Chiara Sportelli et al.: Atomic force microscopy (AFM) micrographs of ZnO-CFx nanocomposites having an inorganic phase volume fraction of φ = 0.05 (a–a’), φ = 0.10 (b–b’), and φ = 0.15 (c–c’). NanoWorld Pointprobe® NCL AFM probes were used.
Figure 2 from “New Insights in the Ion Beam Sputtering Deposition of ZnO-Fluoropolymer Nanocomposites” by Maria Chiara Sportelli et al.: Atomic force microscopy (AFM) micrographs of ZnO-CFx nanocomposites having an inorganic phase volume fraction of φ = 0.05 (a–a’), φ = 0.10 (b–b’), and φ = 0.15 (c–c’).

*Maria Chiara Sportelli, Marco Valentini, Rosaria Anna Picca, Antonella Milella, Angelo Nacci, Antonio Valentini and Nicola Cioffi
New Insights in the Ion Beam Sputtering Deposition of ZnO-Fluoropolymer Nanocomposites
Applied Sciences 2018, 8(1), 77
DOI: 10.3390/app8010077

Please follow this external link for the full article: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/8/1/77/htm

Open Access: The article « New Insights in the Ion Beam Sputtering Deposition of ZnO-Fluoropolymer Nanocomposites » by Maria Chiara Sportelli et al. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Effective gamma-ray sterilization and characterization of conductive polypyrrole biomaterials

“Conductive polymers, including polypyrrole (PPy), have been extensively explored to fabricate electrically conductive biomaterials for bioelectrodes and tissue engineering scaffolds. For their in vivo uses, a sterilization method without severe impairment of original material properties and performance is necessary. Gamma-ray radiation has been commonly applied for sterilization of medical products because of its simple and uniform sterilization without heat generation.[…]”*

In the article “Effective gamma-ray sterilization and characterization of conductive polypyrrole biomaterials” by Semin Kim et. al cited here, the authors describe the first study on gamma-ray sterilization of PPy bioelectrodes and its effects on their characteristics.

The surface topography and roughness of the PPy and γ-PPy electrodes were analyzed by atomic force microscopy. The experiments were performed using a NanoWorld Pointprobe® NCHR AFM probe. All images were acquired at a 0.3 Hz scan rate in tapping mode.

Figure 2 from “Effective gamma-ray sterilization and characterization of conductive polypyrrole biomaterials”: (a) Atomic force micrographs of PPy and γ-PPy samples irradiated with different doses of gamma-ray. (b) Average roughness (root mean square) of PPy and γ-PPy samples. NanoWorld Pointprobe NCHR AFM probes were used for the imaging.
Figure 2 from “Effective gamma-ray sterilization and characterization of conductive polypyrrole biomaterials”: (a) Atomic force micrographs of PPy and γ-PPy samples irradiated with different doses of gamma-ray. (b) Average roughness (root mean square) of PPy and γ-PPy samples.

*Semin Kim, Jin-Oh Jeong, Sanghun Lee, Jong-Seok Park, Hui-Jeong Gwon, Sung In Jeong, John George Hardy, Youn-Mook Lim, Jae Young Lee
Effective gamma-ray sterilization and characterization of conductive polypyrrole biomaterials
Nature Scientific Reports, volume 8, Article number: 3721 (2018)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-22066-6

Please follow this external link for the full article: https://rdcu.be/bariF

Open Access: The article “Effective gamma-ray sterilization and characterization of conductive polypyrrole biomaterials” by Semin Kim et. al is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.