Visible-light-induced surface graft polymerization via camphorquinone impregnation technique

A surface modification method that is particularly applicable to complexly shaped fabricated devices has long been awaited. In this article, we descri be the visible-light-induced surface photograft polymerization technique by which an inner surface of the device is modified by visible-light irradiat ion through the external surface. Comphorquione, as a photoradical initiato r, was impregnated on a segmented polyurethane surface by solvent soaking, followed by visible-light irradiation in the presence of monomers such as a crylamide and poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate. The resultant surfaces we re highly wettable with water, and surface chemical compositional analysis by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that the surface was graft-pol ymerized with these monomers. The simple and widespread applicability of th is surface modification technique to biomedical devices is discussed. (C) 2 001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.