Wettability of polymers by mucin aqueous solutions
Issue title: Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Biorheology. Part I. Palais des Congrès, Nancy, France, 18–23 June 1989. Dedicated to Richard Skalak
Guest editors: Alfred L. Copley and Jean-François Stoltz
Affiliations: [a] Physico-Chimie des Surfaces et Innovation en Pharmacotechnie, URA CNRS 1218,5 rue Jean-Baptiste Clément, 92296 Châtenay-Malabry, France | [b] Faculté de Chirurgie Dentaire, Université Paris VII, 5 rue Garanciére, 75006 Paris, France
Note: [] Accepted by: Editor E. Puchelle
Abstract: The wettability of poly(methyl methacrylate) and polyethylene by water and aqueous mucin solutions have been studied by sessile drop and under-water captive air bubble contact angles, respectively. From the sessile drop and octane under-water contact angles the polymer-water interfaces have been characterized in terms of works of adhesion and acid-base (polar) interactions. A large water-air contact angle hysteresis observed with poly(methyl methacrylate) surfaces has been attributed to side-chain B relaxations of polymer ester methyl groups. The wettabilities of the polymers by mucin aqueous solutions have been studied as a function of protein concentration and related to the surface tensions. A positive slope of adhesion tension vs surface tension line, characteristic of polar surfaces, was found with poly(methyl methacrylate). By contrast, a change in the slope, explained as a change in mucin relative adsorption densities at solid/liquid and solid/vapour interfaces, was observed with polyethylene. This adhesion tension behavior appeared to be in agreement with previous data we have published concerning the quantity and state of mucin which are adsorbed to polymers characterized by different surface properties.
