Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Deposition of Poly Lactic Acid-Like Coatings with Embedded Elastin

Atmospheric pressure plasmas are acquiring more interest in biomedical applications where synthetic biodegradable polymers modified to impart cells adhesion properties play a crucial role. This paper shows a new approach for the bio functionalization of such materials: inclusion of a biomolecule during the plasma deposition. A dielectric barrier discharge system was used for the coatings deposition, coupled with an atomizer for the lactic acid/elastin aerosol feeding. ATR-FTIR, XPS, and UV-VIS were used to investigate the chemical composition of the coatings. By properly tuning plasma parameters, a good retention of the monomer chemical structure could be obtained in the coatings, as well as the inclusion of elastin in its structure.