Electrophoretic deposition of tough films for suture tear resistance

电泳沉积是一种广泛使用的技术，可以快速为包括金属、陶瓷和聚合物在内的一系列材料生产涂层。该技术具有沉积速度快、沉积材料纯度高、厚度完全均匀等优点。最近，研究人员试图使用EPD来制造可用于一系列医疗目的的生物材料膜。本项目的目的是开发一种有效和可重复性的胶原蛋白电泳沉积方法，以快速制造任意尺寸的薄膜。这些胶原基薄膜将被开发成具有合适的机械性能，以防止缝合时的撕裂，并将评估薄膜的生物兼容性，以确定是否适合允许细胞在原位生长。进一步的工作将致力于开发具有命令集交联剂的多层薄膜，希望创造出一种可以由医疗专业人员在外科手术中轻松成形和固定的薄膜。

Electrophoretic deposition is a widely used technique to rapidly produce coatings for a range of materials including metals, ceramics, and polymers. The technique is advantageous because of its high speed, high purity of deposited material, and for producing layers of completely uniform thickness. More recently, research has attempted to use EPD for the fabrication of biomaterial films that can be used for a range of medical purposes. The aim of this project is to develop an effective and reproducible method for electrophoretic deposition of collagen to rapidly manufacture films of arbitrary dimensions. These collagen-based films will be developed to have suitable mechanical properties to resist tearing when sutured and the biocompatibility of the films will be assessed for suitability of allowing cell growth in situ. Further work will aim to develop multi-layered films with command-set crosslinking agents, with the hope of creating a film that can be easily shaped and fixed by medical professionals within a surgical practice.