Polydimethylsiloxane Substrates for passive UHFRFID Sensors

PDMS has previously shown to be a suitable substrate for UHF-RFID strain sensor tags due to their elastomer characteristics. However, PDMS has further properties such as polymer swelling which could be utilized in gas sensing. Macroporous PDMS sponges have been proposed as suitable substrates for passive gas sensors. Porous sponges were fabricated using sugar templates and their absorption capacity was investigated along with standard PDMS elastomers. Possible applications could include food package and air quality monitoring

Elastomeric carbon nanotube circuits for local strain sensing

We use elastomeric polydimethylsiloxane substrates to strain single-walled carbon nanotubes and modulate their electronic properties, with the aim of developing flexible materials that can sense local strain. We demonstrate micron-scale nanotube devices that can be cycled repeatedly through strains as high as 20% while providing reproducible local strain transduction by via the device resistance. We also compress individual nanotubes, and find they undergo an undulatory distortion with a characteristic spatial period of 100-200 nm. The observed period can be understood by the mechanical properties of nanotubes and the substrate in conjunction with continuum elasticity theory. These could potentially be used to create superlattices within individual nanotubes, enabling novel devices and applications

Scalable Microfabrication Procedures for Adhesive-Integrated Flexible and Stretchable Electronic Sensors.

New classes of ultrathin flexible and stretchable devices have changed the way modern electronics are designed to interact with their target systems. Though more and more novel technologies surface and steer the way we think about future electronics, there exists an unmet need in regards to optimizing the fabrication procedures for these devices so that large-scale industrial translation is realistic. This article presents an unconventional approach for facile microfabrication and processing of adhesive-peeled (AP) flexible sensors. By assembling AP sensors on a weakly-adhering substrate in an inverted fashion, we demonstrate a procedure with 50% reduced end-to-end processing time that achieves greater levels of fabrication yield. The methodology is used to demonstrate the fabrication of electrical and mechanical flexible and stretchable AP sensors that are peeled-off their carrier substrates by consumer adhesives. In using this approach, we outline the manner by which adhesion is maintained and buckling is reduced for gold film processing on polydimethylsiloxane substrates. In addition, we demonstrate the compatibility of our methodology with large-scale post-processing using a roll-to-roll approach

DEFORMATION RESPONSE OF POLYDIMETHYLSILOXANE SUBSTRATES SUBJECTED TO UNIAXIAL QUASI-STATIC LOADING

To investigate cellular response of cardiomyocytes to substrate mechanics, biocompatible material with stiffness in physiological range is needed. PDMS based material is used for construction of microfluidic organ on chip devices for cell culture due to ease of device preparation, bonding, and possibility of surface functionalization. However it has stiffness orders of magnitude out of physiological range. Therefore, we adapted recently available protocol aiming to prepare substrates which offer stiffness in physiological range 5−100kPa using various mixtures of Sylgard. An in-house developed loading device with single micron position tracking accuracy and sub-micron position sensitivity was adapted for this experimental campaign. All batches of the samples were subjected to uniaxial loading. During quasi-static experiment the samples were compressed to minimally 40% deformation. The results are represented in the form of stress-strain curves calculated from the acquired force and displacement data and elastic moduli are estimated

Study of lipid bilayer behaviour modified by substrate interactions

Biological membranes rarely exist as free-floating structures but are often confined and supported by various cellular assemblies such as the cytoskeleton and the extracellular matrix. It has already been shown that biological and polymeric substrates can modulate the morphology and response to various stimuli of supported lipid bilayers significantly. The interaction between such structures and the membrane are obviously important yet remain poorly understood even in minimal or synthetic systems. The work of this thesis utilises a variety of fluorescence microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques to investigate the behaviour and structure of supported lipid bilayers, in particular how interfacial features of their support substrate influence and modulate their morphology and biophysical properties. First, surface modification of polydimethylsiloxane is systematically explored, in particular how the interfacial properties of such a polymer substrate can be modified to create fully and partially plasma-treated interfaces that stably support lipid bilayers. Lipid patch formation on such substrates is then investigated, revealing that the membrane undergoes significant morphological reorganisation after vesicle fusion has completed forming a lipid patch. The underlying mechanisms can be altered by substrate interactions following different pathways for fully and partially plasma-treated PDMS substrates. Furthermore, partially plasma-treated substrates are demonstrated to be capable of specifically depleting cholesterol from supported lipid membranes, while stably supporting the other remaining phospholipid species. Studies of cholesterol depletion of lipid patches possessing liquid-ordered and disordered domains reveal a disruption in domains structure, with the partitioning of fluorescent dyes into regions from which they were previously excluded. This structure perturbation was found to be reversible upon the reinsertion of cholesterol into the bilayer. Many of the discussed mechanisms are only observed in the presence of a substrate, emphasising the importance of substrate interactions in both functional biomembranes and the development of supported membrane technologie

Capture and printing of fixed stromal cell membranes for bioactive display on PDMS surfaces

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) has emerged as an extremely useful polymer for various biological applications. The conjugation of PDMS with bioactive molecules to create functional surfaces is feasible, yet limited to single molecule display with imprecise localization of the molecules on PDMS. Here we report a robust technique that can transfer and print the membrane surface of glutaraldehyde-fixed stromal cells intact to a PDMS substrate using an intermediate polyvinylalcohol (PVA) film as a transporter system. The cell-PVA film capturing the entirety of surface molecules can be peeled off and subsequently printed onto PDMS while maintaining the spatial display of the original cell surface molecules. Proof-of-concept studies are described using human bone marrow stromal cell membranes, including the demonstration of bioactivity of transferred membranes to capture and adhere hematopoietic cells. The presented process is applicable to virtually any adherent cell and can broaden the functional display of biomolecules on PDMS for biotechnology applications

Into the groove:instructive conductive silk films with topological guidance cues

Instructive biomaterials capable of controlling the behaviour of the cells are particularly interesting scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Novel biomaterials are particularly important in societies with rapidly aging populations, where demand for organ/tissue donations is greater than their supply. Herein we describe the preparation of electrically conductive silk film-based nerve tissue scaffolds that are manufactured using all aqueous processing. Aqueous solutions of Bombyx mori silk were cast on flexible polydimethylsiloxane substrates with micrometer-scale grooves on their surfaces, allowed to dry, and annealed to impart β-sheets to the silk which assures that the materials are stable for further processing in water. The silk films were rendered conductive by generating an interpenetrating network of polypyrrole and polystyrenesulfonate in the silk matrix. Films were incubated in an aqueous solution of pyrrole (monomer), polystyrenesulfonate (dopant) and iron chloride (initiator), after which they were thoroughly washed to remove low molecular weight components (monomers, initiators, and oligomers) and dried, yielding conductive films with sheet resistances of 124 ± 23 kΩ square-1. The micrometer-scale grooves that are present on the surface of the films are analogous to the natural topography in the extracellular matrix of various tissues (bone, muscle, nerve, skin) to which cells respond. Dorsal Root Gangions (DRGs) adhere to the films and the grooves in the surface of the films instruct the aligned growth of processes extending from the DRGs. Such materials potentially enable the electrical stimulation of cells cultured on them, and future in vitro studies will focus on understanding the interplay between electrical and topographical cues on the behaviour of cells cultured on them

Pattern formation during the evaporation of a colloidal nanoliter drop: a numerical and experimental study

An efficient way to precisely pattern particles on solid surfaces is to dispense and evaporate colloidal drops, as for bioassays. The dried deposits often exhibit complex structures exemplified by the coffee ring pattern, where most particles have accumulated at the periphery of the deposit. In this work, the formation of deposits during the drying of nanoliter colloidal drops on a flat substrate is investigated numerically and experimentally. A finite-element numerical model is developed that solves the Navier-Stokes, heat and mass transport equations in a Lagrangian framework. The diffusion of vapor in the atmosphere is solved numerically, providing an exact boundary condition for the evaporative flux at the droplet-air interface. Laplace stresses and thermal Marangoni stresses are accounted for. The particle concentration is tracked by solving a continuum advection-diffusion equation. Wetting line motion and the interaction of the free surface of the drop with the growing deposit are modeled based on criteria on wetting angles. Numerical results for evaporation times and flow field are in very good agreement with published experimental and theoretical results. We also performed transient visualization experiments of water and isopropanol drops loaded with polystyrene microsphere evaporating on respectively glass and polydimethylsiloxane substrates. Measured evaporation times, deposit shape and sizes, and flow fields are in very good agreement with the numerical results. Different flow patterns caused by the competition of Marangoni loops and radial flow are shown to determine the deposit shape to be either a ring-like pattern or a homogeneous bump