Effectiveness of silane treatment on absorbable microfibers.

Preliminary experiments suggest pretreatment of absorbable crystalline, calcium-sodium-metaphosphate (CSM) microfibers with trimethoxy-based silane coupling agents yields a polysiloxane film barrier which protects the fiber surface from early dissolution due to water. Compared to thermoplastic poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) composites reinforced with untreated fibers, PLLA composites reinforced with a variety of silane pretreated microfibers showed increased mechanical properties, suggesting improved adhesion was achieved at the fiber/matrix interface. Unfortunately, the silane pretreated CSM/PLLA composite showed no increase in wet strength retention after short-term in vitro exposure. This may be due to plasticization from water entering the composite at areas of incomplete fiber wetting by the highly viscous molten PLLA. However, when a nonabsorbable, low viscosity unsaturated polyester thermoset resin was reinforced with methacryloxy-silane pretreated CSM microfibers, there was no decrease in flexural strength and less than a 10% decrease in flexural modulus after 7 days exposure to 7.4 pH Tris-buffered saline at 37 degrees C.