Investigation of oriented collagen fibril array on polyimide film

[Display omitted] •Formation of oriented collagen fibrils on rubbed polyimide films was investigated.•The surface functional groups of polyimide were oriented by the rubbing treatment.•The oriented fibrils were formed by recognizing the nano-grooves on the films.•β-Sheet component of collagen was interacted with the surface nano-grooves.•The interface design for the highly- and densely-orientation was clarified. The formation of the oriented collagen (Col) fibril arrays on the polyimide films (PI-R and PI-HDR), which were rubbed by two kinds of clothes with the lower and higher filament densities, was investigated. The Col molecules were assembled to be the oriented fibrils by recognizing the physicochemical properties of the films. In particular, the dense nano-grooves of the PI-HDR effectively induced the highly- and densely-oriented fibril arrays, which occurred by the interfacial interactions between the β-Sheet component of Col and the PI surfaces.