The versatile family of nanoparticles is considered to have a huge impact on the different fields of materials research, mostly nanoelectronics, catalytic chemistry and in study of cytocompatibility, targeted drug delivery and tissue engineering. Different approaches for nanoparticle preparation have been developed, not only based on “bottom up” and “top down” techniques, but also several procedures of effective nanoparticle modifications have been successfully used. This paper is focused on different techniques of nanoparticles’ preparation, with primary focus on metal nanoparticles. Dispergation methods such as laser ablation and vacuum sputtering are introduced. Condensation methods such as reduction with sodium citrate, the Brust–Schiffrin method and approaches based on ultraviolet light or biosynthesis of silver and gold are also discussed. Basic properties of colloidal solutions are described. Also a historical overview of nanoparticles are briefly introduced together with short introduction to specific properties of nanoparticles and their solutions.

While polymers are widely utilized materials in the biomedical industry, they are rarely used in an unmodified state. Some kind of a surface treatment is often necessary to achieve properties suitable for specific applications. There are multiple methods of surface treatment, each with their own pros and cons, such as plasma and laser treatment, UV lamp modification, etching, grafting, metallization, ion sputtering and others. An appropriate treatment can change the physico-chemical properties of the surface of a polymer in a way that makes it attractive for a variety of biological compounds, or, on the contrary, makes the polymer exhibit antibacterial or cytotoxic properties, thus making the polymer usable in a variety of biomedical applications. This review examines four popular methods of polymer surface modification: laser treatment, ion implantation, plasma treatment and nanoparticle grafting. Surface treatment-induced changes of the physico-chemical properties, morphology, chemical composition and biocompatibility of a variety of polymer substrates are studied. Relevant biological methods are used to determine the influence of various surface treatments and grafting processes on the biocompatibility of the new surfaces—mammalian cell adhesion and proliferation is studied as well as other potential applications of the surface-treated polymer substrates in the biomedical industry.

The objective of this work was to determine surface properties of polymer surfaces after plasma treatment with the aim of further cytocompatibility tests. Examined polymers were poly(ethyleneterephthalate) (PET), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), poly(tetrafluoro-ethylene) (PTFE) and poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA). Goniometry has shown that the plasma treatment was immediately followed by a sharp decrease of contact angle of the surface. In the course of ageing the contact angle increased due to the reorientation of polar groups into the surface layer of polymer. Ablation of polymer surfaces was observed during the degradation. Decrease of weight of polymer samples was measured by gravimetry. Surface morphology and roughness was studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The PLLA samples exhibited saturation of wettability (aged surface) after approximately 100 hours, while the PET and PTFE achieved constant values of contact angle after 336 hours. Irradiation by plasma leads to polymer ablation, the highest mass loss being observed for PLLA. The changes in the surface roughness and morphology were observed, a lamellar structure being induced on PTFE. Selected polymer samples were seeded with VSMC (vascular smooth muscle cells) and the adhesion and proliferation of cells was studied. It was proved that certain combination of input treatment parameters led to improvement of polymer cytocompatibility. The plasma exposure was confirmed to significantly improve the PTFE biocompatibility