Plasma treatment of polymer powder as an effective tool to functionalize polymers: case study application on an amphiphilic polyurethane

Plasma treatment is a widely applied, easy, fast, and highly reproducible surface modification technique. In this work powder plasma treatment was exploited to expose carboxylic groups along the backbone of a water soluble polymer. Specifically, a custom-made amphiphilic poly(ether urethane) containing Poloxamer® 407 blocks (Mw = 54,000 Da) was first synthesized and its powders were plasma treated in the presence of Acrylic Acid vapor. To maximize –COOH group exposure while preventing polymer degradation, different Ar gas flow rates (i.e., 10, 30, and 50 sccm) were investigated. Upon gas flow increase, significant polymer degradation was observed, with a 35% molecular weight reduction at 50 sccm Ar flow rate. On the other hand, the highest number of exposed carboxylic groups (5.3 × 1018 ± 5.5 × 1017 units/gpolymer) was obtained by setting gas flow at 10 sccm. Hence, a gas flow of 10 sccm turned out to be the best set-up to maximize –COOH exposure while preventing degradation phenomena. Additionally, upon plasma treatment, no detrimental effects were observed in the thermoresponsiveness of polymer aqueous solutions, which was ensured by Poloxamer® 407 blocks. Therefore, the newly developed technology here applied on an amphiphilic poly(ether urethane) could pave the way to the tailored design of a plethora of different multifunctional hydrogels.