NONWOVEN CARBON FIBERS WITH NANOMETRIC METALLIC LAYERS AS A TOOL TO MONITOR REGENERATIVE PROCESSES

Still unsolved is the problem of monitoring the tissue regeneration with the use of implants (substrates) in in vivo conditions. The multitude of implant materials combined with their specific immanent often limit standard diagnostic methods, i.e. X-rey or computer tomography (CT). This is particularly difficult in therapies using polymeric high-resistance substrates for tissue engineering. The aim of this study was to fabricate a non-woven carbon fiber composed of carbon fibers (CF) which were then subjected to a surface modification by magnetron sputtering. A layer of iron (Fe) was applied under inert conditions (argon) for different time periods (2-10 min). It was shown that already after 2-4 minutes of iron sputtering, the voxel surface (CF_Fe2', CF_Fe4') was covered with a heterogeneous iron layer observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS). The longer the modification time, the more uniform the layer on the fiber surface becomes. This can be seen by the change in the wettability of the nonwoven surface which decreases from 131 degrees for CF_Fe2 to 120 degrees for CF_Fe10. The fibers do not change their geometry or dimensions (similar to 11.5 um). The determination of pore size distribution by adsorption and desorption techniques (BJH) and specific surface area by nitrogen adsorption method (BET) have shown that the high specific surface area for the CF_Fe2' fibers decreases by 10% with the increasing iron sputtering time. All the studied CF_Fe fibers show good biocompatibility with osteoblast-like cells MG-63 cells after both 3 and 7 days of culture. Osteoblasts adhere to the fiber surface and show correct morphology.

Automated summary

This study aimed to fabricate a non-woven carbon fiber through magnetron sputtering surface modification. The results showed that longer iron sputtering time led to a more uniform layer on the fiber surface and decreased wettability. The material exhibited good biocompatibility with osteoblast-like cells.