Functionalization of a Textile Surface by N2 Jet Technology to Improve Its Roughness for Medical Applications

Foreign Body Reaction (FBR) is a major problem when PolyEthylene Terephthalate (PET) textile implants are studied in the medical applications to treat conditions such as hernia development, arterial stenosis, or heart valve malfunction. Whatever the application, the natural porosity of textile materials tends to cause exaggerated tissue development after implantation, which may keep the implant from maintaining its flexibility. It has been shown in literature that one potential strategy to reduce the FBR process is to improve the surface roughness of the implanted material. The objective of this study is to adjust the topography of textile surfaces by inducing hairiness, generated by particle projection. For that purpose, a supercritical N2 jet is used in order to supply sufficient velocity to sprayed particles, which result in local filament ruptures on the treated surface. In particular, the study examines the influence of jet projection parameters such as jet pressure, standoff distance SOD, particle size, and density on the roughness obtained on woven PET textile surfaces (plain weave constructions characterized by 34 and 28 weft yarn/cm). The results show that under certain projection conditions, particles can generate a layer of frayed fibers on the textile surface. It comes out that appropriate and regular hairiness is obtained on the sample surface with the following setup adjustment parameters: pressure of 900 bars, SOD of 400 mm, and a particle mass flow rate of 0.6 g/s.