| Abstract: | Several low‐powered gas plasmas were employed to treat a biomedical poly(ester)urethane using the treatment gases of CO2, O2, NH3, and SO2 with different treatment time (2, 5, 10, and 15 min). The changes of the physical and chemical characteristics of the biopolymer surface were studied. Surface morphology was evaluated by scanning probe microscopy, which showed increased roughness of the surface after plasma treatment. The wettability of the surface was examined by static water contact angle (SCA) measurements, which presented that there was a decrease of SCA in all plasma treatments compared with the untreated surface and that each gas plasma had an optimum treatment time accompanied by a minimum contact angle. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicated the changes of the surface functional groups. The data demonstrated that CO2 and O2 plasmas resulted in the incorporation of oxygen‐containing groups, while NH3 plasma resulted in the combination of nitrogen‐containing groups, and SO2 plasma resulted in the formation of sulfur‐containing groups. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 101: 1273–1282, 2006 |
