Wettable ePTFE medical devices
OwnerKathryn J. Kitching, Catherine E. Taylorinventors
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Abstract
Methods are provided for surface modifying a hydrophobic polymer substrate to increase wettability comprising the steps of pre-treating the hydrophobic polymer substrate with a radio frequency (RF)-generated first plasma and a RF-generated second plasma wherein the first plasma and the second plasma are applied sequentially, coating the hydrophobic polymer substrate with a hydrophilic coating; and polymerizing the hydrophilic coating on the hydrophobic polymer substrate by exposure to a RF-generated third plasma.
Claims16
A method of surface modifying a hydrophobic polymer substrate to increase wettability comprising:
- pre-treating said hydrophobic polymer substrate with a first radio frequency (RF)-generated plasma and a second RF-generated plasma wherein said first plasma and said second plasma are applied sequentially;
- coating said hydrophobic polymer substrate with a hydrophilic coating comprising a polyethylene glycol acrylate (PEG-acrylate) polymer having the general structure H2C═CHCO(OCH2CH2)nOH, wherein n is an integer between 1 and 300;
- and
- polymerizing said hydrophilic coating on said hydrophobic polymer substrate by exposure to a third RF-generated plasma.
A method of surface modifying an ePTFE substrate to increase wettability comprising
- pre-treating said ePTFE substrate with a radio frequency (RF)-generated argon plasma and a RF-generated H2O plasma wherein said argon plasma and said H2O plasma are applied sequentially;
- coating said ePTFE substrate with a PEG-acrylate coating;
- and
- polymerizing said PEG-acrylate coating on said ePTFE substrate by exposure to a RF-generated argon plasma.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.