Matrix Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation (MAPLE) technique is a thin film deposition technique developed to minimize the photochemical damage that results from direct interaction of the laser light with fragile organic molecules (polymers and biomolecules). In fact, in MAPLE the target is composed by a dilute (1-5%) frozen solution of a volatile and light absorbing solvent, which contains the molecules of interest as solute. When the laser pulse impacts the target, most of its energy is absorbed by the solvent, which vaporizes explosively entraining the polymer molecules in the plume. This provides a softer desorption of intact polymer molecules. The volatile solvent is pumped away by a vacuum pump, resulting in a non-contact deposition technique.

For the deposition of biopolymer thin films, the MAPLE technique is a suitable alternative to solution-based processing techniques due to the following facts: (1) MAPLE is a non-contact deposition technique, thus eliminating a major source of contamination, i.e., the solvent and its impurities, and it can be integrated with other sterile processes; (2) The accurate thickness control is beneficial to tailor the in-vivo degradation rate of bioresorbable polymers, being the time of degradation proportional to the thickness of the film; (3) MAPLE allows multiple-layer depositions without the risk of re-dissolving the first deposited layer. This characteristic offers interesting perspectives for multilayer deposition of composite coatings.

This study concerns the exploration of the possibility of biopolymer coatings by MAPLE and of the possible advantages on the properties of the obtained composite materials that this technique can have. In particular, among the applications we also explored the possibility of coating three-dimensional porous scaffolds using (D,L-lactide) (PDLLA) as coating material and 45S5 Bioglass® as scaffold material.

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1. Surface morphology and film structure of poly[3-(4-octyloxyphenyl) thiophene (POOPT) thin films obtained by thermal annealing during Matrix Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation (MAPLE)
2. In-situ preparation and characterization of novel polyester/TiO2 nanostructured composites