Surface modifications of inert and bioactive glasses with plasma-deposited polymer coatings to impart antiadhesive properties

Abstract

The development of antiadhesive surfaces has attracted great interest in recent years, both in the biomedical field and in everyday life applications. Non-thermal atmospheric plasma technology, still slightly explored in particular on bioactive glass, offers important opportunities for limiting bacterial adhesion on materials’ surfaces. In this work, both bioactive and inert glasses were coated with (HMDSO) using the non-thermal atmospheric plasma process. The obtained coating was carefully investigated through morphological and compositional analysis, and the evaluation of the surface roughness wettability and zeta potential. Moreover, the influence of the coating on bioactivity (for bioactive glasses) was estimated and a preliminary test to investigate the antifouling properties of treated samples was performed using a Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) Staphylococcus aureus strain. The obtained results evidenced a reduced roughness and a uniform distribution of the polymer on all glasses’ surfaces, which imparted a hydrophobic effect due to the exposure of CH₃ groups. The bioactivity kinetics of the treated samples slightly decreased; however, the hydroxyapatite (HAp) precipitation was highlighted after 7 days of immersion in SBF. Finally, all plasma treated glasses showed a significant reduction in the number and aggregation degree of viable surface-adhered MDR S. aureus.