from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Plasma-polymerized organosilicon coatings have been playing an important role in many research studies due to their wide range of applications. These materials can be used in industry as transparent wear resistant layers, protective hard a-Si:C:H or SiO2-like films, corrosion protection coatings, barrier films etc. Plasma-polymerization using organosilicon precursors has been investigated lately for development of unique thin film materials for bioapplications as well, including surface coating of surgical and dental implants to improve their biocompatibility. In the present work, low pressure RF capacitively coupled discharge was used to deposit thin solid films suitable for medical application from mixture of trimethylsilyl acetate (TMSA) and oxygen. Since resistance to liquid environment is the critical parameter that determines usability of the material for bioapplications, the deposited TMSA plasma polymers were exposed to water for 48 hours. The degree of stability varied with deposition parameters as well as other properties of organosilicon plasma polymers. This study summarizes changes of chemical structure and mechanical properties of resulting coatings in dependence on the ratio of TMSA and oxygen flow rates during the deposition process. Results of water stability tests included in present study proved that it is possible to prevent delamination of the coating during exposition to the aqueous environment by appropriate choice of discharge parameters.
Keywords: Plasma polymers, trimethylsilyl acetate, PECVD, FTIR, microindentation, confocal microscopy, ellipsometry© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.