Topography hierarchy of biocompatible polyhydroxyalkanoate film

Abstract

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are used for various biomedical applications due to their biocompatibility. Surface properties, such as surface roughness, are crucial for PHAs performance. Traditional parameters used for the characterization of surface roughness, such as R_a, are often insufficient to capture the complex and hierarchical (multiscale) topography of PHA films. We measure the topography and surface roughness of thin PHA films with atomic force microscopy and analyze the topography data using several relatively novel data processing methods, including the calculation of autocorrelation functions, topological data analysis, and the distribution of minimum and maximum values of pixels over the topography data. The results provide details of multiscale and anisotropic surface properties that are crucial to PHAs biocompatibility but often overlooked by traditional topography analysis methods.