In the past two decades many attempts have been made t o relate surface and interfacial parameters with the blood compatibility of polymeric surfaces. It is however doubtful if by a single parameter the behaviour of blood on a surface can be predicted. Two major aspects of blood compatibility -the prevention of platelet adhesion and the deactivation of the intrinsic coagulation system are deter...

Graphene displays properties that make it appealing for neuroregenerative medicine, yet its interaction with peripheral neurons has been scarcely investigated. Here, we culture on graphene two established models for peripheral neurons: PC12 cells and DRG primary neurons. We perform a nano-resolved analysis of polymeric coatings on graphene and combine optical microscopy and viability assays to ...

To address the limitations of traditional drug delivery, TiO2 nanotubes (TNTs) are recognized as a promising material for localized drug delivery systems. With regard to the excellent biocompatibility and physicochemical properties, TNTs prepared by a facile electrochemical anodizing process have been used to fabricate new drug-releasing implants for localized drug delivery. This review discuss...

Surface modified colloidal carriers such as nanoparticles are able to modulate the biodistribution of the loaded drug when given intravenously, but also to control the absorption of drugs administered by other routes. This review presents the different strategies to coat the surface of polymeric as well as inorganic nanoparticles with polysaccharides. Various physicochemical and biological meth...

Novel scaffolds composed of poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) skeleton covered with bonelike apatite or apatite/collagen composite were produced via a combined phase-separation technique and an accelerated biomimetic coating process. Saos-2 osteoblast-like cells were used to evaluate the cellular behaviors on these biomimetic coatings. Cell morphologies on the surfaces of PLLA scaffolds, PLLA scaffold...

Article info: Received: 23 January 2013 Accepted: 5 February 2013 ABSTRACT One of the major challenges in modern synthetic polymer chemistry is to synthesize end defined polymers of different end functionality with predetermined uniform molecular weight. End functionalized polymers/copolymers basically in block and grafting form are having several potential applications in biomedical areas in t...

The tribological test with Pin-On-Disc configuration measures friction and wear properties in dry or lubricated sliding surfaces of a variety of materials and coatings. Polymeric matrix composites loaded with mineral filler were used, 1%, 3%, 10%, 30%, and 50% mass percentage of filler, to reduce the material cost by using mineral tailings. Using a pin-on-disc tribometer to quantify coefficient...

The synthesis and the characterization of new polymeric systems to be used as protective coatings for space vehicles is described. Particular emphasis is placed on ablators which have low irradiation and particle emissivity under the conditions of typical reentry of a space vehicle into the atmosphere. Crosslinking by ionizing radiation in carbon black filled Kel-F and Teflon has been establish...

Surface topology investigation of luminescent polymeric films is a promising research area due to the interest in their technological application, mainly to large-area electroluminescent displays (Holzera et al., 1999). Surface topology of organic flexible materials is generally controlled by a chemical and physical process, the polymer coatings are generally heterogeneous, and the most signifi...

Gamma radiation has been shown particularly useful for the functionalization of surfaces with stimuli-responsive polymers. This method involves the formation of active sites (free radicals) onto the polymeric backbone as a result of the exposition to high-energy radiation, in which a proper microenvironment for the reaction among monomer and/or polymer and the active sites takes place, thus lea...