The Effect of Plasma Treatment on the Performance of Poly(<i>lactide-Co-Glycolide</i>) Fiber

Abstract

In this paper, Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PGLA) fibers were treated with the plasma. The surface, tensile strength, and contact angle with water of the PGLA fiber were investigated. The results showed that the PGLA fiber after treatment possessed more rough surface and smaller contact angle with water compared with the untreated fiber, but the tensile strength of fiber after treatment was not significantly diffrent form the fiber before treatment. In addition, both the treated and untreated PGA fibers were placed in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) (pH=7.4) at 37 °C up to 2.5 weeks to investigate the effect of plasma treatment on the degradation in vitro. Changes in tensile strength during degradation was investigated. The results showed that the treated PGLA fiber degraded faster compared with the untreated fiber.