A plasma bonded PDMS device to glass slide when treated with pluronic, will make the surface hydrophobic? I know that pluronic is used to avoid deposition on surfaces, but what does it really do to make the surfaces deposition free.
Dear Adity Pore , Pluroric F-127 or Poloxamer 407 is a surfactant, therefore it has hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties. It is a triblock copolymer of type ABA, being A= PEG =Polyethylene glycol, which is hydrophilic and B=PPG= Polypropylene glycol, which is hydrophobic (at some extention due to the -CH3 lateral chains). For low molecular weight PPG is still water soluble. The hydrophobic properties of PPG let it catch oily materials and the PEG part facilitates their removal by water washing. It is a kind of soap without ions.
This material has the property to become liquid at low temperature, while is a solid gel at warmer temperatures which allows to use it as a sacrificial bioink, so you print something with it and then this structure is embeded in another polymer or material, then cooling the whole thing, pluronic becomes liquid and can be removed, leaving a hole structure inside the other material, something useful for making channels or vessels for example.
Hope it helps!
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