Biocompatible thin film coatings fabricated using the electrostatic self-assembly process

Biomaterials are substances that are produced synthetically or biologically for use in the medical and the other fields. The use of biomaterials to interface with living systems, such as fluids, cells, and tissues of the body, has played an increasingly important role in medicine and pharmaceutics. In particular, the design of biocompatible synthetic surfaces to control the interaction between a living system and an implanted material remains the major theme for biomaterial applications in medicine. The novel and low-cost electrostatic self-assembly (ESA) technique provides an effective approach to incorporate various biomaterials on substrate surfaces, and gives greater opportunity to develop unique biocompatible materials with well-controlled interfaces between the living system and the implanted materia. This paper presents the design, synthesis, and characterization of multilayer thin films fabricated layer-by-layer by the ESA process using ceramics, polymers and functionalized fullerenes as candidate biomaterials.© (2001) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.