ABSTRACT
Recently, there has been extensive growth in the usage of polymeric materials playing significant roles in various industrial applications. However, the existence of polymers with the required properties is often limited. Surface properties of the polymers are critical when employing them in biomedical applications; hence, modifying the surface of polymers is often used to meet various necessities. Numerous surface modification techniques, such as ozone treatment, wet chemical, UV induced polymerization, gamma radiation, oxidation, plasma, etc., have been employed in recent years to alter the surface properties of polymers. Among them, the non-thermal plasma surface modification technique has gained consideration among researchers around the world and has offered substantial contributions to adapting or modifying the surface properties of polymers without amending the bulk material. It is employed in the development of various polymeric coatings and exceptionally difficult micro- or nanosurface coatings, as it can differentiate numerous chemical bonds at the atomic level. In addition, it has proven to be an auspicious and compelling technology for enhancing the surface properties of the materials in a successful, cost-effective, and economical way. The important aspect is that plasma operating conditions control the physicochemical properties of polymers and modify surface properties by suitably incorporating various functionalities (hydroxyl, amino, carboxyl, etc.) on its surfaces. Along with other surface modification techniques, this chapter comprehensively reviews the use of non-thermal plasma technology (low pressure and cold atmospheric pressure plasma) for tailoring the surface of polymers by plasma treatment, polymerization, and polymer coatings containing reactive functional groups for the covalent immobilization of biomolecules for improvement of their biocompatibility, which can be further used in numerous applications.
