Surface morphological modification of crosslinked polymeric matrices by nanosecond pulsed laser irradiation,

GASTÓN A. PRIMO; CECILIA INÉS ÁLVAREZ IGARZABAL ; GUSTAVO A. PINO ; MAXIMILIANO ROSSA

Porto de Galinhas

Congreso; SLAP 2014 [XIV Latin American Symposium on Polymers (Simpósio Latino Americano de Polímeros ? SLAP) y XII Ibero American Congress on Polymers (Congreso Ibero Americano de Polímeros - CIP)]; 2014

In this work we investigate the surface modifications induced by irradiation with nanosecond laser pulses of ultraviolet and visible wavelengths on crosslinked hydrophilic materials, which have been functionalized with 1-vinylimidazole as a comonomer. We compared hydrogels differing in the base co-monomer (2-(dimethylamino) ethylmethacrylate and N-[3- (dimethylamino)propyl] methacrylamide) and in water content (fully hydrated and dehydrated). Formation of craters is the dominant morphological changes observed by ablation in the visible at 532 nm, whereas additional, less aggressive surface modifications, chiefly roughness and foaming are developed in the ultraviolet at 266 nm. In all cases, the incident laser fluence dependence of these surface modifications is addressed. The observations are rationalized on the basis of currently accepted mechanisms for laser-induced polymer decomposition. Prospective applications of the laser-foamed hydrogel matrices in biomolecule immobilization are suggested