Abstract
The current development of technologies related to materials for science, biology and medicine is gaining a new impetus in order to give a better treatment to injured tissues and organs. In this context, biomaterials and biofabrication techniques are providing a healthier life to the population. However, to produce implant parts and devices, there is the need for biocompatibility and absence of toxic materials, which may preclude their medical application. To avoid this situation, Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) is presented as an attractive technique, since it can produce, in some case solvent less, polymeric biomaterials and uniform adherent films over substrates in just one single processing step. The development of CVD reactors has been extensively studied, but little is known about their fluid dynamic behavior and associated heat and mass transfer effects. The aim of this paper was to simulate a CVD reactor during the synthesis of poly 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (PHEMA), through of the release of the gaseous 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (2-HEMA) and initiators in a single step, completely dry, without the use of solvents or volatiles. The impact of operating conditions in the quality and characteristics of the deposited material was explored. A computational fluid dynamic (CFD) study was carried out to simulate velocity and temperature distribution on the vertical CVD. As a result, certain design aspects related to heat and mass transfer were addressed, which allowed to understand and to suggest modifications in the reactor design. These simulations were important to define a desirable temperature operation range aiming a uniform flow distribution in the reactor.
