Modificação da superfície de poliestireno por imersão em plasma para inibição da staphylococcus epidermidis.

Abstract

Polymeric materials, such as polystyrene, are widely used as biomaterials, both in the pharmaceutical industry and biomedical areas. With the use of more specialized biomaterials, it is reported a significant increase of diseases related to the presence of bacterial biofilms formation on the surface of these materials. In this work, polystyrene microtiter plates were treated by RF plasma immersion, in a N2/H2 standard gas mixture, in order to evaluate the surface modifications and its effects on the adherence and growth of bacterial biofilms produced by Staphylococcus epidermidis. The identification of atomic species and functional groups incorporated into the polymer surface by plasma immersion process was carried out by the techniques of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR). The changes in morphology and surface roughness of PS were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The hydrophilicity of the surface was analyzed by measuring the water contact angle (WCA). Bacterial antibiofilm assays were carried out in order to evaluate the efficiency of plasma treatment on the growth/adherence of the biofilm formed by S. epidermidis. Physical-chemical modifications in the samples surface were found by XPS technique, where an increase in amount of relative atomic percentage of N and the presence of new chemical bonds was observed as a function of the treatment time. Through the ATR-IR spectroscopy was possible to identify the presence of amine and amide groups. The SEM and AFM measurements revealed changes in morphology and a reduction of the surface roughness with increasing time. It is also observed a reduction in the WCA after plasma treatment, indicating that PS surface becomes more hydrophilic. Antibacterial assays, shows that after 60 min of treatment time was achieved a high suppression of biofilm adhesion in the polymer surface.