Descripción del proyecto
Peines diminutos inspirados en arañas para desenredar nanofibras y mejorar su aplicación
Las nanofibras tienen un diámetro unas cien veces inferior al del cabello humano. Esas dimensiones tan reducidas ya dificultan en gran manera su manipulación, pero eso no es todo. Tienen, además, la tendencia a pegarse a otros materiales, lo que convierte en casi imposible su manejo e impide el desarrollo del sinfín de aplicaciones que podrían generarse. La naturaleza le ha otorgado a una pequeña y curiosa araña toda una hilera de patas similares a las cerdas de un peine diminuto. El arácnido utiliza este recurso para peinar y sacar las hebras de la seda de araña que produce. El proyecto BioCombs4Nanofibers se ha propuesto desarrollar un sistema similar en una superficie artificial. Una caracterización cuidadosa podría permitir el desarrollo de nanoherramientas innovadoras y antiadherentes para nanofibras; esto facilitaría el procesamiento de las nanofibras y abriría el camino a multitud de aplicaciones.
Objetivo
Challenge: Nanofibers are constantly drawing the attention of material scientists and engineers as their surface-to-used-material-ratio is beneficial for, e.g. medical applications. However, technical nanofiber processing, transportation or even simple things as spooling is inhibited by their attraction to any surface by van der Waals forces, the adhesive forces also enabling geckos to stick to the wall. Recent research aims for scale-up of the controllable production of nanofibers though have not enabled an easier handling and thus their application is still limited. A specific kind of nanofibers are nanofibrous protrusions of adherent cells and microorganisms. The interaction of these fibers with nanostructures is a key feature for their controlled adhesion at natural or artificial surfaces.
Inspiration by nature: One major problem for handling of nanofibers is their stickiness to almost any surface due to van der Waals forces. However, there is a biological example to show how to tackle this problem in the future: cribellate spiders bear a specialized comb, the calamistrum, to handle and process nanofibers, which are assembled to their structural complex capture threads. These 10 – 30 nm thick fibers do not stick to the calamistrum due to a special fingerprint-like nanostructure. This structure causes the nanofibers to not smoothly adapt to the surface of the calamistrum, but rather minimizes contact and thus reduce the adhesive forces between the nanofibers and the calamistrum.
Radically new technological approach: The transfer of these bionic comb structures to a technical surface will enable that future tools for nanofiber handling (covered with such a nanostructure) are antiadhesive towards nanofibers. Similar nanostructures can hinder the adhesion of nanofibrous protrusions of cells or microorganisms, which may enable cell-repellent or antiseptic areas on medical devices and implants.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaConvocatoria de subcontratación
H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2019-2020-01
Régimen de financiación
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinador
4040 Linz
Austria