TY - JOUR A1 - Meyer-Plath, Asmus A1 - Schröder, K. A1 - Finke, B. A1 - Ohl, A. T1 - Current trends in biomaterial surface functionalization - nitrogen-containing plasma assisted processes with enhanced selectivity JF - Vacuum N2 - Low-pressure gas-discharge plasmas are widely used for polymer surface functionalization on industrial scale. For biomaterial applications, the density and selectivity of the functionalization are of particular importance, because functional groups control the immobilization of biomolecules. Therefore, surface modification of biomaterials is a challenging task for low-pressure plasma technique. Plasma processes have been successfully applied to various polymer types in order to generate multifunctional surfaces. This paper discusses the present state and the prospects of non-coating plasma processes to generate mono functional surfaces of controlled amino group density. Such surfaces appear most desirable for many applications. The results of various microwave- and radio-frequency- excited plasma processes reported in the literature are reviewed and compared to a sequence of experiments that was conducted in a UHV reaction environment. Non-thermal plasmas are especially well suited for thermally damageable polymers. The effect of hydrogen admixture to discharges in nitrogen and ammonia is discussed in detail. The optimization of process parameters lead to highly selective amino functionalization of high density. The selectivity reached 100% -NH2/N at a surface density of amino groups of 3% -NH2/C. KW - Low pressure plasma KW - Grafting KW - Polymers KW - Amino group KW - Surface analysis PY - 2003 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/S0042-207X(02)00766-2 SN - 0042-207X VL - 71 IS - 3 SP - 391 EP - 406 PB - Elsevier Science CY - Kidlington AN - OPUS4-13686 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -