4/22/11 Barrio, M

Design of Biocompatible Ureteral Stents for Inhibition of Encrustation and Biofilm Formation
Barrio, M., Fonteno, S., Garcia, S. Department of Bioengineering, University of California Riverside, CA 92521 Progress Report Week 13 Work Completed During this week, we were able to conduct the DPPH test on three samples. We performed the test on two oxygen plasma treated samples and one untreated sample to account for the error in the polyurethane. We took two samples of 1cm x 2mm of PU sheets and plasma treated them under the same power, time, but we varied the pressure according to literature to achieve a high density. We then conducted the DPPH test on the three samples and measured the absorbance at 520nm. The data is shown in Table 1. We also created our standard curve so that we can take our measured absorbance and use it to find the concentration, which is shown in Figure 1. The concentrations we used to create the standard curve are shown in Table 2 and the absorbance was taken at 520nm. Samples Untreated 200 mTorr Sample 250 mTorr Sample Absorbance 0.239 0.058 0.080
Table 1 DPPH absorbance Data

Concentration (M) 1.16x10-4 1.16x10-5 5.8x10-6 2.9x10-6 1.45x10-6

Absorbance 1.006 0.091 0.031 0.009 0.004

Table 2 Standard Curve Concentration Data

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Absorbance vs. DPPH Concentration

1.2 1 0.8 Absorbance 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0 0.00002 0.00004 0.00006 0.00008 0.0001 DPPH Concentration (M) 0.00012 0.00014 y = 8651.7x R = 0.999

Figure 1 Standard Curve for DPPH

Using this standard curve, we can find the concentration of the peroxides on the surface of our treated samples. We plugged in the absorbance into the standard curve and found the peroxide concentration of our treated samples, which is shown in Table 3. Samples 200 mTorr Sample 250 mTorr Sample Concentration (M) 1.295x10-5 1.040x10-5
Table 3 Peroxide Concentration on treated samples

Although we were able to find the peroxide concentration on the plasma treated polyurethane samples, we believe that this data is incorrect because the concentration is very large compared to literature. Literature values are reported in the nanomole range and we are producing data in the micromole range. Therefore, we will conduct the DPPH test on treated samples again and see if we can find where we made our error. We decided to move on to the grafting of acrylic acid to the surface of the polyurethane as well. We took one sample and plasma treated it at 200 mTorr since our DPPH test resulted with a higher peroxide concentration at this pressure. The sample is currently being dried and later on today, we will conduct the toluidine blue test to confirm the presence of carboxylic acids on the surface.

4/22/11 Barrio, M Future Work If the grafting of poly acrylic acid is successful and if we achieve a concentration of acrylic acid in the micromole range, we will move on to the final step in our synthesis which is the taurine substitution. We will continue to work on the DPPH test as well so we can present accurate and relevant data for our presentation. We also plan to conduct SEM and AFM on polyacrylic acid and taurine substituted samples to confirm surface modification and show the even distribution of the molecules. Later, we hope to produce a sample and give it to the Loma Linda Clinicians so they can perform tests to see if the surface modification will prevent encrustation and bacterial adhesion. Project Review This past week we were able to perform DPPH tests on the treated PU stents and grafting of acrylic acid onto polyurethane. Our project is approximately three to four weeks behind schedule due to the late arrival of the materials and the constant problems with the plasma generator. This can be seen in the Gantt chart below under the material production tasks. Over the coarse of the final weeks of quarter we plan to make up this time by increasing the number of hours worked per week in lab. We made significance progress this week with all the reactions we carried out and we believe we can finish this project before the deadline. In addition, we must be more efficient with our time and attempt to split up work that can be completed simultaneously.