Nondestructive Covalent “Grafting-from” of Poly(lactide) Particles of Different Geometries

A nondestructive "grafting-from" method has been developed using poly(lactide) (PLA) particles of different shapes as substrates and three hydrophilic monomers as grafts. Irregularly shaped particles and spheres of PLA were covalently surface functionalized using a versatile method of photoinduced free radical polymerization. The preservation of the molecular weight of the PLA particle bulk and the retention of the original particle shape confirmed the negligible effect of the grafting method. The changes in surface composition were determined by FTIR for both spherical and irregular particles and by XPS for the irregular particles showing the versatility of the method. Changes in the surface morphology of the PLA spherical particles were observed using microscopy techniques showing a full surface coverage of one of the grafted monomers. The method is applicable to a wide set of grafting monomers and provides a permanent alteration of the surface chemistry of the PLA particles creating hydrophilic PLA surfaces in addition to creating sites for further modification and drug delivery in the biomedical fields.