Surfaces Functionalization and Patterning Techniques to Design Interfaces for Biomedical and Biosensor Applications

This paper describes the use of plasma deposition and etching technologies for production of functional polymers (protein affinity and anti-fouling) and their application to the fabrication chemical contrasts at micro and sub micron scale. Plasma deposition processes of acrylic acid (ppAA) and PEO-like films to obtain functionalized surfaces are illustrated, together with optical lithography and colloidal lithography techniques used for micro and nano scale patterning. In particular, microstructure based upon combination of pulsed plasma polymerized acrylic acid (with carboxyl retention up to 15%) and cell repulsive PEO-like character (C-O content higher than 70%) have been realized and characterized by XPS and TOF-SIMS. Furthermore, colloidal lithography is used for fabrication of sub-micron (100nm diameter) ppAA functionalized nanostructures and Protein adsorption and cell growth experiments are described demonstrating the reliability of plasma polymers for micro and nanobiotechnology applications.JRC.I.4-Nanotechnology and Molecular Imagin