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MM: Fachverband Metall- und Materialphysik

MM 32: Biomaterials and Biological materials I

MM 32.2: Topical Talk

Mittwoch, 18. März 2015, 10:45–11:15, TC 006

Towards bioinspired adaptive composites using responsive microcapsules — •André R. Studart — Complex Materials, Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland

Biological materials exhibit dynamic self-healing and adaptive functionalities that arise from the coordinated action of living cells. Despite the unparalleled complexity of biological systems, major efforts have been made to generate engineered microcompartments that partly replicate just a few key features of the fascinating dynamic response of living cells. In this talk, I will present our recent efforts to create chemically- and mechanically-responsive microcompartments using templating double emulsions made by a microfluidic technique. In the first part of the talk, I will present tools to obtain polymer-based capsules with predictable size and shell thickness, as well as tunable mechanical behavior and shell microstructure. Such microcapsules are incorporated into polymer matrices to generate composites with self-healing and adaptive properties. In the second part, I will describe a general strategy to create multifunctional colloidosomes that can release cargo on-demand in response to an external chemical trigger. This is achieved by reversibly trapping cargo molecules inside the colloidosome or by implementing gating properties to the capsule wall using responsive polymer shells. While the capsules obtained remain very far from reaching the responsiveness of truly dynamic biological systems, the level of geometrical and materials control enabled by microfluidics makes it a promising platform for the creation of advanced microcompartments for future capsule-based adaptive materials.