Surface Morphological Modification of Crosslinked Hydrophilic Co-Polymers by Nanosecond Pulsed Laser Irradiation

GASTÓN A. PRIMO; CECILIA INÉS ALVAREZ IGARZÁBAL; GUSTAVO A. PINO; JUAN C. FERRERO; MAXIMILIANO ROSSA

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2016 vol. 369 p. 422 - 422

his work reports an investigation of the surface modifications induced by irradiation with nanosecond laser pulses of ultraviolet and visible wavelengths on crosslinked hydrophilic co-polymeric materials, which have been functionalized with 1-vinylimidazole as a co-monomer. A comparison is made between hydrogels differing in the base co-monomer (N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate and N-[3-(dimethylamino)propyl] methacrylamide) and in hydration state (both swollen and dried states). Formation of craters is the dominant morphological change observed by ablation in the visible at 532 nm, whereas additional, less aggressive surface modifications, chiefly microfoams and roughness, are developed in the ultraviolet at 266 nm. At both irradiation wavelengths, threshold values of the incident laser fluence for the observation of the various surface modifications are determined under single-pulse laser irradiation conditions. It is shown that multiple-pulse irradiation at 266 nm with a limited