Copoly(phthalazinone biphenyl ether sulfone) (PPBES) as a commercially available polyarylether is a promising orthopaedic implant material because its mechanical properties are similar to bone. However, the bioinert surface of polyarylether causes some clinical problems after implantation, which limits its application as an implant material. In this study, the surface of PPBES was modified by a biomineralization method of polydopamine-assisted hydroxyapatite formation (pHAF) to enhance its cytocompatibility. Polydopamine (PDA) coating, inspired by the adhesion mechanism of mussels, can readily endow PPBES with high hydrophilicity and the ability to integrate via the bone-like apatite coating. PPBES and PDA-coated PPBES were evaluated by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and contact angle measurement. The water contact angles were reduced significantly after coating with PDA. PDA was successfully synthesized on PPBES and more PDA was obtained by increasing the temperature. Bone-like apatite on PPBES (apatite-coated PPBES) was confirmed by SEM and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The cytotoxicity of pristine PPBES and apatite-coated PPBES were characterized by culturing of NIH-3T3 cells. Bone-like apatite synthesized by pHAF could further enhance cytocompatibility in vitro. This study provides a promising alternative for biofunctionalized PPBES with improved cytocompatibility for bone implant application.Keywords:polydopamine;bone-like apatite;phthalazinone;PPBES;coating;cytocompatibility
Our previous work has shown that the amino group is beneficial to improve the interface properties of PPBES/CF composites. However, the existing methods for introducing amino groups have many reaction steps, long reaction time and harsh reaction conditions. A one-step efficient click reaction can effectively avoid the above disadvantages. In this paper, 2-aminoethanethiol (AET) was grafted to CF via a thiol-ene click reaction. The reaction time has been reduced from over 9 h to just 1.5 h. The successful introduction of amino group into CF was testified by FTIR, Raman and XPS . The influence of different ratios of CF:AET on the interfacial properties of the composites was studied emphatically. When CF: AET was 1:3 (T3), the composite exhibited optimal mechanical properties . The ILSS and flexural strength of the resulting composite increased by 24.45% and 33.1%, respectively. The T g of the PPBES/T3 composite was increased to 242 °C as verified by DMA .