Direct formation of hydrophilic honeycomb film by self-assembly in breath figure templating of hydrophobic polylacticacid/ionic surfactant complexes

• Published in: Soft matter Vol. 15; no. 25; pp. 552 - 559
• Main Authors: Yin, Hongyao, Zhan, Fuxing, Yu, Yue, Li, Zongcheng, Feng, Yujun, Billon, Laurent
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 26.06.2019
• Subjects: Addition polymerization; Analytical chemistry; Biocompatibility; Cell adhesion; Chemical Sciences; Embedding; Hydrophilicity; Hydrophobicity; Ionic surface active agents; Material chemistry; Nanoparticles; or physical chemistry; Polylactic acid; Polymers; Self-assembly; Surfactants; Theoretical and; Tissue engineering; Wettability; Wetting
• ISSN: 1744-683X; 1744-6848
• DOI: 10.1039/c9sm00845d

Honeycomb-patterned porous films with good surface wettability have great potential applications in various areas. However, hydrophilic honeycomb films are difficult to obtain using the direct self-assembly of pure (co)polymers. Thus, additional and special treatments are required to improve film wettability, which makes the procedure complicated and difficult to access. In this study, a facile way to prepare hydrophilic honeycomb-structured porous films is proposed that uses the direct self-assembly of complexes of biocompatible hydrophobic poly( l -lactic acid) and dodecyltrimethylammonium chloride by breath figure templating. The addition of ionic surfactant not only improves film quality but also confers good wettability. The obtained hydrophilic pore arrays were found to effectively promote cell attachment. Such a hydrophilic honeycomb-patterned porous film could find potential applications where pore wetting is required, including tissue engineering, lithography, and nanoparticle embedding. Hydrophilic honeycomb films are directly fabricated by the self-assembly of complexes of polylacticacid and dodecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride in 'breath figure' templating. The presence of a cationic surfactant not only improves film regularity, but also imparts them with excellent wettability.