Oxidative functionalization of polypropylene mesh surface by radio frequency plasma

Functional designing of polypropylene (PP) has become an essential requirement for biomedical applications. Plasma treatment of the PP hernia mesh was carried out to investigate the physicochemical changes occurring on its surface. The surface chemistry was revealed to be considerably influenced by the plasma treatment time, plasma power, and plasma carrier gas flow rate. It was observed that the plasma treatment time increased the peroxide content up to 120 s, beyond which the peroxide content decreased. The contact angle of the mesh decreases from 132° to 32° for an exposure time of 120 s and then increases to 78° for an exposure time of 200 s. The surface characterization of the mesh surface was carried out using atomic force microscopy (AFM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and attenuated total reflectance-fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). X-ray photon electron microscopy (XPS) was used to analyze the nature of the polar functionality on the PP mesh surface. The optimum plasma treatment conditions for the PP mesh functionalization were investigated.