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Near-Surface Nanomechanics of Medical-Grade PEEK Measured by Atomic Force Microscopy

Detecting subtle changes of surface stiffness at spatial scales and forces relevant to biological processes is crucial for the characterization of biopolymer systems in view of chemical and/or physical surface modification aimed at improving bioactivity and/or mechanical strength. Here, a standard a...

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Autores principales: Bontempi, Marco, Capozza, Rosario, Visani, Andrea, Fini, Milena, Giavaresi, Gianluca, Gambardella, Alessandro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9920404/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36772019
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15030718
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author Bontempi, Marco
Capozza, Rosario
Visani, Andrea
Fini, Milena
Giavaresi, Gianluca
Gambardella, Alessandro
author_facet Bontempi, Marco
Capozza, Rosario
Visani, Andrea
Fini, Milena
Giavaresi, Gianluca
Gambardella, Alessandro
author_sort Bontempi, Marco
collection PubMed
description Detecting subtle changes of surface stiffness at spatial scales and forces relevant to biological processes is crucial for the characterization of biopolymer systems in view of chemical and/or physical surface modification aimed at improving bioactivity and/or mechanical strength. Here, a standard atomic force microscopy setup is operated in nanoindentation mode to quantitatively mapping the near-surface elasticity of semicrystalline polyether ether ketone (PEEK) at room temperature. Remarkably, two localized distributions of moduli at about 0.6 and 0.9 GPa are observed below the plastic threshold of the polymer, at indentation loads in the range of 120–450 nN. This finding is ascribed to the localization of the amorphous and crystalline phases on the free surface of the polymer, detected at an unprecedented level of detail. Our study provides insights to quantitatively characterize complex biopolymer systems on the nanoscale and to guide the optimal design of micro- and nanostructures for advanced biomedical applications.
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spelling pubmed-99204042023-02-12 Near-Surface Nanomechanics of Medical-Grade PEEK Measured by Atomic Force Microscopy Bontempi, Marco Capozza, Rosario Visani, Andrea Fini, Milena Giavaresi, Gianluca Gambardella, Alessandro Polymers (Basel) Article Detecting subtle changes of surface stiffness at spatial scales and forces relevant to biological processes is crucial for the characterization of biopolymer systems in view of chemical and/or physical surface modification aimed at improving bioactivity and/or mechanical strength. Here, a standard atomic force microscopy setup is operated in nanoindentation mode to quantitatively mapping the near-surface elasticity of semicrystalline polyether ether ketone (PEEK) at room temperature. Remarkably, two localized distributions of moduli at about 0.6 and 0.9 GPa are observed below the plastic threshold of the polymer, at indentation loads in the range of 120–450 nN. This finding is ascribed to the localization of the amorphous and crystalline phases on the free surface of the polymer, detected at an unprecedented level of detail. Our study provides insights to quantitatively characterize complex biopolymer systems on the nanoscale and to guide the optimal design of micro- and nanostructures for advanced biomedical applications. MDPI 2023-01-31 /pmc/articles/PMC9920404/ /pubmed/36772019 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15030718 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bontempi, Marco
Capozza, Rosario
Visani, Andrea
Fini, Milena
Giavaresi, Gianluca
Gambardella, Alessandro
Near-Surface Nanomechanics of Medical-Grade PEEK Measured by Atomic Force Microscopy
title Near-Surface Nanomechanics of Medical-Grade PEEK Measured by Atomic Force Microscopy
title_full Near-Surface Nanomechanics of Medical-Grade PEEK Measured by Atomic Force Microscopy
title_fullStr Near-Surface Nanomechanics of Medical-Grade PEEK Measured by Atomic Force Microscopy
title_full_unstemmed Near-Surface Nanomechanics of Medical-Grade PEEK Measured by Atomic Force Microscopy
title_short Near-Surface Nanomechanics of Medical-Grade PEEK Measured by Atomic Force Microscopy
title_sort near-surface nanomechanics of medical-grade peek measured by atomic force microscopy
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9920404/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36772019
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15030718
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