Title
Micro- and Nanotexturization of Liquid Silicone Rubber Surfaces by Injection Molding Using Hybrid Polymer Inlays
Date Issued
01 March 2022
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Lozano-Hernández N.
Pérez Llanos G.
Saez Comet C.
Puiggali J.
Fontdecaba E.
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Publisher(s)
John Wiley and Sons Inc
Abstract
Micro- and nanotexturization of surfaces can give to the parts different advanced functionalities, such as superhydrophobicity, self-cleaning, or antibacterial capabilities. These advanced properties in combination with the biocompatibility of Liquid Silicone Rubber are an interesting approach for obtaining high-performance medical devices. The industrial production of surface textures in polymeric materials is through the replication technique, and the best option to attain a high production rate is injection molding. Moreover, its low viscosity during processing can provide an accurate replication capacity by the easy filling by capillarity of the microtextures. An innovative replicating technique for Liquid Silicone Rubber is presented by studying the replication of different shaped textures within a diameter range of between 2 and 50 µm. The copying process consists in the overmolding of a textured polymeric inlay obtained by nanoimprint lithography. At the end of the process, a textured part is obtained, while the imprinted film remains in the mold. The injection molding parameters are optimized to increase the replication accuracy, and their effect on texture replicability is analyzed and discussed. Finally, it is shown that the textured surfaces improve their wettability behavior, which is a necessary and important characteristic in the development of biomedical devices.
Volume
307
Issue
3
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ciencia de los polímeros
Ingeniería química
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85121657369
Source
Macromolecular Materials and Engineering
ISSN of the container
14387492
Sponsor(s)
This work was financially supported by the Catalonian Government through the funding grant ACCIÓ‐Eurecat. N.L.‐H. is a research fellow at Eurecat's “Vicente López” Ph.D. grant program. L.J.d.V. and J.P. acknowledge the financial support by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project MAT2018‐(RTI2018‐101827‐B‐100) and Generalitat de Catalunya (grant 2017SGR373).
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus