Polyethylene oxide additive-entrapped polyvinyl chloride as a new blood bag material

Until now, most widely used blood bag material has been a plasticized polyv inyl chloride (PVC) because it has many desirable properties as a blood bag material. One of main concerns of using plasticized PVC as a blood bag mat erial is the toxicity of the plasticizers that are Leached out of the mater ial. We tried to solve this problem by the addition of polyethylene oxide ( PEO)-containing amphiphilic block copolymers as additives in the PVC. The P EO additives may play two roles: they can act as nontoxic plasticizers to P VC, and they can also act as blood-compatible surface modifiers. In this st udy, PEO additive-entrapped PVC films were prepared by the addition (up to 30 wt%) of PEO-alkyl carbon block copolymers or PEO-polypropylene oxide (PP O)-PEO triblock copolymers with different PEO chain lengths in the PVC. The prepared PEO additive-containing PVC films were characterized by the measu rements of water contact angle, Fourier transform IR spectroscopy in the at tenuated total reflectance mode, mechanical properties (tensile strength an d elongation at break), water absorption, and stability of the PEO additive s entrapped in the films. It was observed that the PEG additive-entrapped P VC films were flexible and transparent. It seems that the PEO additives are surface active, resulting in the considerable change of surface characteri stics without a significant change of the mechanical properties of the film s compared to the control PVC without any additives or a commercial blood b ag. The adhesion of platelets on the him surfaces was significantly reduced by the addition of PEO additives. It seems that 10% addition of PEO additi ves is enough for the suppression of platelet adhesion on the surfaces. Thi s study demonstrated that the use of PEG-containing block copolymers as add itives to the PVC can be a feasible approach to prepare a new type of blood bag. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.