Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'PDMS surface'

The aim of the project was to modify polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surfaces in order to minimize adsorption of proteins. PDMS is used in micro-fluidic devices that control the delivery of samples to a sensor chip in Biacore instrumentation. These instruments are used to characterize interactions between biomolecules with a detection principle based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR). To minimize adsorption of proteins poly-ethylene-oxide (PEO) based surfactants, were added to the buffer. The added PEO surfactants were P20, Pluronic F-127 and Brij 35. Interaction of these surfactants with the sensor chip in Biacore instruments was also examined. Creating a more hydrophilic surface layer on PDMS by oxidation was also examined.

When surfactants were continuously added to protein samples, as in dynamically coating of PDMS surfaces, Brij 35 resulted in the strongest reduction in protein adsorption. Brij 35 was also the surfactant that was easiest to remove from both PDMS and the sensor surfaces. Pluronic bound strongest to surfaces, and is most suitable when only adding surfactant to the buffer in a pre-coating step. All surfactants did reduce protein adsorption considerably (99% or more) and addition is necessary when working with protein solutions and hydrophobic surfaces as PDMS. Another alternative is oxidation of PDMS surface, which is an easy procedure that decreased the protein adsorption to about 10% compared to adsorption to untreated surface.

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2009.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 30).
The flame plasma treatment studied in this thesis was able to oxidize the surface of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) in a fraction of a second. It was found to be a much faster way to modify PDMS surface wettability than the current technologies. The surface wettability of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) treated with flame plasma was studied. The surface wettability was characterized by contact angle measurements using water and a surface tension liquid as the probe liquids. Two experimental parameters were varied in this investigation: a) distance from the PDMS surface to the inner flame cone; b) the dwell time of the PDMS under the flame. The study concluded that the same surface wettability can be achieved through different combinations of distance and dwell time. The shortest dwell time needed to induce a contact angle of 100 or less on the treated PDMS surface in this experimental setup was approximately 0.18 second. This study also found that over treatment of the PDMS surface in the flame plasma yielded a reversal treatment effect and decreased the surface wettability. The flame plasma yielded uniform contact angle measurements within 15% across the PDMS surface. The recovery mechanism in the treated PDMS surfaces was dominated by the diffusion of untreated polymers from the bulk PDMS to the treated surface. The results from this investigation demonstrated the potential for the flame plasma treatment to be used in rapid manufacturing of PDMS microfludic devices.
by Xin C. Wang.
S.B.

Surface modification of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based vulcanizate rubber by C02-pulsed laser as the excitation source, without a photosensitizer, was studied at room temperature. The modified surfaces were characterized using a variety of techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM) combined with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA), attenuated total reflectance infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy and water drop contact angle analysis. EDXA showed that all of the treated PDMS surfaces contained a higher ratio of O/Si than the base PDMS. SEM micrographs and water drop contact angle variations showed the uniform porosity and high decrease in the wettability of the surface of PDMS respectively. The bulk mechanical properties of PDMS after laser-treatment did not change, as shown by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA). The friction coefficient of the surface of the modified silicone decreased drastically, even after only one pulse was delivered to it. Data from in vitro blood compatibility experiments indicated a significant reduction of platelet adhesion and aggregation for the modified surfaces and those platelets which were adherent remained unspread (no activation). The extent of reduction of platelet adhesion was correlated to the number of laser pulses. The attachment of anchorage dependent cells, namely Baby Hamster Kidney (BILK) fibroblastic cells was investigated under stationary culture conditions. The laser treated surfaces showed little adhesion, no spreading and growth properties. This technique can be employed to prepare PDMS samples in which one surface is laser treated and the other is untreated. Such materials may be useful in, for example, medical implants in which one (the treated) surface is in contact with a blood supply and hence does not cause cell aggregation (clotting) and the other side is tissue compatible (allows adhesion of tissue). Acrylamide (AAm), 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) and hydroxyethylmethacrylate phosphatidyl choline (HEMAPC) were grafted onto preirradiated PDMS. Platelet adhesion and cell attachment studies show that the biocompatibility of the AAm and HEMA grafted PDMS are intermediate between that of untreated PDMS and either the HEMAPC grafted PDMS surface, or PDMS surfaces that had been treated with 10 CO. laser pulses.

The need for safe and functional implants has led to anincreased demand for improved biomaterials. The performance invivo depends on the interaction between the biologicalsurrounding and the surface of the material. By tailoring thesurface of a material with suitable bulk properties,biomaterials with an ability to interact with the biologicalsystem in a specific and controlled way are obtained. Siliconeelastomers have been used as biomaterials for several decades,but it is widely recognized that they are difficult to modifyby the conventional methods used for organic polymers due tothe partly inorganic structure of silicone.

This thesis presents a strategy to obtain siliconebiomaterials by covalent coupling of molecules to the surfaceusing silicon chemistry. The first step is to introduce Si-Hgroups onto the surface of silicone elastomers by plasmatreatment. The second step is to react a terminal double bondof a molecule with the formed Si-H group by a catalyzedhydrosilylation reaction. The coupled molecule may eitherprovide the desired properties itself, or have a functionalitythat is able to couple another molecule with suitablecharacteristics.

The influence of plasma treatment in hydrogen, argon andoxygen on the silicone elastomer was characterized by X-rayphotoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). To quantify the effect ofplasma treatment, the method of ternary XPS diagrams wasdeveloped. It was found that undesired silica-like layers wereformed under severe treatment conditions. Argon plasma at lowpower and short treatment time was the most suitable parametersetting. Subsequent hydrosilylation grafting ofallyltetrafluoroethylether, aminopropylvinylether andN-vinylformamide showed that it was possible to functionalizethe surface via a covalent link to the surface. The primaryamino groups introduced onto the surface were accessible forfurther coupling reactions. Heparin surfaces were obtained by acoupling reaction with the introduced amino groups.

Keywords:Silicone elastomers, PDMS, XPS, ESCA, surfacemodification, plasma

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the world. It is therefore critically important to detect cancer in its early stage to significantly increase the survival rate of cancer patients. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are cancer cells that peel off from primary tumour and enter bloodstream in early stage of a cancer, and thus it has been established that these CTCs are reliable targets for early cancer diagnosis. However, background signal reduction and optimization of CTC capturing mechanisms are still significant challenges in CTC detections with high sensitivities and accuracies. To this end, we have developed an aptamers and dendrimers based ultra non-fouling microfluidic detection system for sensitive detections of circulating tumour cells. More specifically, we demonstrate a simple strategy to bind PDMS and SU-8 surfaces in order to prepare a hybrid microfluidic device and subsequently modify both surfaces simultaneously using poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM), a highly hydrophilic dendrimer to improve non-fouling properties of the hybrid microfluidic channel. The resulting hybrid microfluidic system shows a remarkable non-specific adsorption suppression of 99.7% when tested with hydrophobic microbead suspension, an ultra non-fouling performance that has not been reported before. This is significantly important for detections with high sensitivities. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and water contact angle are used to characterize and confirm surface modifications. In addition, we investigate the combined effects of surface properties on surface non-fouling performance to both live and dead cells. (3-aminopropyl)-trimethoxysilane (APTMS), carboxyl functionalized PAMAM dendrimer (PAMAM-COOH) and amino functionalized PAMAM dendrimer (PAMAM-NH2) are used to provide different surfaces with various surface hydrophilicity, electric charge and roughness. We show that electric charge of a surface is the most important factor influencing non- specific adsorption of live cells to the surface while hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity of a surface is the most important factor for dead cells. Atomic force microscopy, water contact angle and microscopy are used to characterize and confirm surface modifications. To further exploit and improve capturing efficiency of target cancer cells, we investigate the effect of the length of spacers that tether capturing aptamer to the microfluidic surfaces on capturing performance of CCRF-CEM circulating tumour cells. Aptamers with different lengths of thymine base spacers are immobilized onto PAMAM dendrimer modified surfaces in microfluidic channels. We demonstrate that ten thymine bases spacer has the best length for sgc8 aptamer to form its secondary structure for CCRF-CEM cell capture. Water contact angle, and microscopy are used to characterize and confirm surface modifications. Taken together, the results of this study significantly highlight the importance of different considerations on surface modification and its optimizations when designing a microfluidic system for high sensitivity detection and biosensing applications.

For 40 years, at the University of Bologna, a group of researchers coordinated by professor Claudio Zannoni has been studying liquid crystals by employing computational techniques. They have developed effective models of these interesting, and still far from being completely understood, systems. They were able to reproduce with simulations important features of some liquid crystal molecules, such as transition temperature. Then they focused their attention on the interactions that these molecules have with different kinds of surface, and how these interactions affect the alignment of liquid crystals. The group studied the behaviour of liquid crystals in contact with different kinds of surfaces, from silica, either amorphous and crystalline, to organic self assembled monolayers (SAMs) and even some common polymers, such as polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and polystyrene (PS). Anyway, a library of typical surfaces is still far from being complete, and a lot of work must be done to investigate the cases which have not been analyzed yet. A hole that must be filled is represented by polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a polymer on which the interest of industry has enormously grown up in the last years, thanks to its peculiar features, allowing it to be employed in many fields of applications. It has been observed experimentally that PDMS causes 4-cyano-4’-pentylbiphenyl (well known as 5CB), one of the most common liquid crystal molecules, to align homeotropically (i.e. perpendicular) with respect to a surface made of this polymer. Even though some hypothesis have been presented to rationalize the effect, a clear explanation of this phenomenon has not been given yet. This dissertation shows the work I did during my internship in the group of professor Zannoni. The challenge that I had to tackle was to investigate, via Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations, the reasons of 5CB homeotropic alignment on a PDMS surface, as the group had previously done for other surfaces.

Master of Science
Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering
Kevin B. Lease
This research was intended to measure the interfacial shear strength between fiber/ matrix systems and to investigate the relation between structure-mechanical properties and performance of fiber/matrix systems. This work conducted a systematic study on model fiber/matrix systems to enhance the fundamental understanding on how variation of polymeric compositions (and hence, different structures), different curing conditions, and fiber surface treatments influence the interactions between the fiber and matrix. In order to measure the interfacial shear strength of fiber/matrix systems, the microdroplet technique was used. In this technique a polymer droplet was deposited on a fiber in the liquid state. Once the droplet was cured a shear force was applied to the droplet in order to detach the droplet from the fiber. The amount of the force needed to de-bond the droplet was directly related to the strength of the bonds formed between the fiber and matrix during the curing process. In addition, the micro-droplet technique was used to evaluate effects of different crosslinker ratio of fiber/ matrix system and also to see if different curing conditions affect the interfacial shear strength of fiber/ matrix system. Surface treatment was also conducted to evaluate its effects on the interfacial shear strength of the fiber/ matrix system using microdroplet technique. The interfacial shear strength of fiber/ matrix system increased along with the increase of crosslinker ratio to a limiting value, and it decreased as long as the crosslinker ratio increased. Curing condition also caused the interfacial shear strength of fiber/ matrix system to increase when it was cured at higher temperature. Fiber surface treatment exhibited a significant effect to the interfacial shear strength as well as the fiber/ matrix contact angle measurement.

Les thermoplastiques contenant du PDMS ont attiré beaucoup d’attention à cause de leur potentiel dans un large spectre d’applications. Lors du mélange du PDMS avec des thermoplastiques, le problème de la compatibilité ne peut être ignoré. Cette dernière engendre de faibles propriétés mécaniques ainsi qu’une surface rugueuse. Par conséquent, le défi principal des mélanges PDMS/thermoplastique est de trouver un moyen efficace et adapté, comme le mélange réactif in situ, pour compatibiliser les différentes phases. Récemment, nous avons trouvé une réaction intéressante entre l’hydrosilane (SiH) et les groupes carbonyles catalysés par le triruthénium dodecacarbonyle [Ru3(CO)12]. Il a le potentiel pour réaliser cette compatibilisation réactive. Dans un premier temps, nous avons étudié le mécanisme de la réaction d’hydrosilylation catalysée par le ruthénium dans le cas du N-méthylpropionamide. Les composés N-silicatés formés qui peuvent jouer par la suite le rôle de compatibilisant lors du mélange réactif. Dans un deuxième temps, cette réaction d’hydrosilylation a été étendue au mélange réactif de PA12 avec du PDMS terminé hydride en conditions de mélange fondu. La réaction a été réalisée rapidement (en 1 minute) en présence de Ru3 (CO) 12 (1wt%). Ensuite, nous avons étudié la microstructure des deux mélanges. En comparaison avec le mélange non réactif, la dispersion du PDMS dans celui réactif était clairement améliorée puisque la taille des domaines. En outre, dans de telles conditions réactives et en présence du catalyste de ruthénium, une réaction d’oxydation du PDMS-SiH est partiellement observée. Ceci inclue par exemple les propriétés de stabilité thermique, de comportement cristallin, d’énergie de surface et de perméabilité et séparation des gaz. Dans un troisième temps, nous nous sommes intéressés à l’application de la réaction d’hydrosilylation catalysée par le ruthénium aux composites PBT/polyméthylhydrosiloxane (PMHS). Cependant, à cause des températures élevées nécessaires à la mise en forme du PBT (220°C), une réaction de réticulation entre le PBT et le PMHS apparait mais également et une auto-réticulation du PMHS. Enfin, ces résultats montrent une application potentielle et initial de ruthénium hydrosilylation catalysées à compatibilisation réactive entre l'hydropolysiloxane et un polyamide ou un polyester
Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) containing thermoplastics have attracted much attention due to their potential in wide range of applications. However, when blending PDMS with thermoplastics, the incompatible problem cannot be ignored. It may results in weak mechanical properties and a rough surface. Therefore, the main challenge of PDMS and thermoplastic blend is to find an efficient and convenient way like in situ reactive blending to realize the compatibilization between tthem. Recently, we found an interesting reaction between hydrosilane (SiH) and carbonyl group catalyzed by triruthenium dodecacarbonyl [Ru3(CO)12]. It has potential to realize such reactive compatibilization. Firstly, we investigated the mechanism of ruthenium catalyzed hydrosilylation reaction of N-methylpropionamide, and found that the formed N-silylated compounds which can work as compatibilizers in later reactive blending. Then this hydrosilylation reaction was extended to the reactive blending of PA12 with hydride terminated PDMS under molten processing conditions. The reaction was carried out quickly (in 1 minute) in the presence of Ru3(CO)12 (1wt%). Compared to the unreacted one, the dispersion of PDMS after reaction was obviously improved. Besides, in such reactive conditions, PDMS-SiH oxidation reaction was partially observed. This phenomenon leads to a second PDMS gel based phase. Properties like thermal stability, crystalline behavior, surface energy and gas permeability and separation of such blends were also studied. Secondly, ruthenium catalyzed hydrosilylation was also applied to PBT and polymethylhydrosiloxane (PMHS) which was processed at higher temperature (220°C). The final material includes the crosslinking network formed between PBT and PMHS and a part of PMHS self-crosslinking forming PMHS gel-like phase due to the higher processing temperature of PBT and high reactivity of PMHS. Finally, these results show a potential and initial application of ruthenium catalyzed hydrosilylation to reactive compatibilization between hydride polysiloxane and polyamide or polyester

L’objectif de cette étude était d’améliorer les performances de séparation OSN de membranes commerciales en vue d’applications en métathèse dans laquelle des catalyseurs hautement dilués sont utilisés. Dans ce travail, des membranes polymères commerciales ont d'abord été étudiée pour caractériser leurs performances dans des milieux organiques en utilisant des mélanges binaires très dilués solute-solvant. Sur la base d'une revue de la littérature, il a été montré que la membrane PERVAP4060, dont le PDMS est la couche active dense était un candidat prometteur pour la nanofiltration milieu organique (OSN). En tant que membrane poreuse, les supports commerciaux AMS et PAN ont également été pris en compte. Dans cette étude, nous avons considéré la modification sur la surface pour conserver les propriétés de matrice polymère. Les multicouches de plasma Ar/O2 et/ou de polyélectrolytes ont été utilisées pour la préparation de membranes prototypes. Les membranes non modifiées et modifiées ont été testées dans des conditions OSN en utilisant des mélanges d'alimentation biniares. Plusieurs solutés très dilués, le ligand organophosphoré R-BINAP, un catalyseur de transfert de phase (ToABR) et des alcanes linéaires ont été étudiés. Le R-BINAP et le ToABR ont tous deux été utilisés dans la plage de 0,0001 à 0,5% en masse et la plupart des expériences ont été réalisées ensuite avec des concentrations de 0,05% en masse de soluté dans le toluène. Il a été montré que le PDMS était capable de retenir 80% de R-BINAP et environ 93% de ToABr dans du toluène. Après modification par les dépôt LBL, le taux de rejet est amélioré avec les membranes modifiées PERVAP4060, conduisant à une rétention de 88% du R-BINAP avec un dépôt de 10 bicouches de polyélectrolytes PAH / PSS en surface, ce taux de rejet pouvant atteindre 95% lorsque le nombre de bicouches est de 20. Le taux de rejet de ToABr augmente à 97%. Les performances de la membrane ont été étudiées sous différentes pressions comprises entre 1 et 40 bars; le haut rejet, encore observé dans ces conditions OSN, plaide résolument en faveur d'un mécanisme de transfert de type solution-diffusion à travers le PDMS. On a également étudié le traitement des mélanges ternaires mimant le mélange catalyseur / solutés / solvant, correspondant à l'hydroformylation ; aucun signe de couplage n’a été détectée et le taux rejet du soluté de masse molaire la plus forte est resté inchangé. D'autre part, l'amélioration du taux de rejet a également observée à partir des membranes poreuses après modification. Le taux de rétention du C44 dans l'AMS a été atteint 75% après modification par 10 bicouches de PDDA / PSS, alors qu’il n'était que de 25% avant modification. Dans le PAN modifié, le taux de rejet des solutés obtenus est dans la plage de 37 à 50%, alors qu’il n'était que de 3 à 7% en masse avant modification. L'inconvénient de la membrane poreuse est toutefois la forte diminution du flux après le dépôt des couches multiples
The objective of this study was to improve the OSN separation performance of commercial membranes for metathesis applications in which highly diluted catalysts are used. In this work, commercial polymeric membranes were first studied to characterize their performance in organic media using very dilute solute-solvent binary mixtures. Based on a literature review, it was shown that the PERVAP4060 membrane, of which PDMS is the dense active layer, was a promising candidate for organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN). As a porous membrane, the AMS and PAN commercial supports have also been taken into account. In this study, we considered the modification on the surface to improve the separation properties of polymeric OSN membranes. Ar/O2 plasma and/or polyelectrolytes multilayers were used for the preparation of new prototype membranes. Unmodified and modified membranes were tested under OSN conditions using binary feed mixtures. Several highly dilute solutes, organophosphorus ligand R-BINAP, phase transfer catalyst ToABR, and linear alkanes have been studied. Both R-BINAP and ToABR were used in the range of 0.0001 to 0.5% by weight, and most experiments were subsequently performed with 0.05% solute concentrations in toluene. It has been shown that PDMS can retain 80% R-BINAP and about 93% ToABr in toluene. After modification by the LBL deposition, the rejection is improved with the modified PERVAP4060 membranes, leading to an 88% rejection of R-BINAP with a deposit of 10 PAH / PSS polyelectrolyte bilayers at the surface and this rejection being able to reach 95% when the number of bilayers is 20. ToABr rejection increases to 97% with the ten bilayered membranes. The performance of the membrane was studied under different pressures of between 1 and 40 bar; the high rejection, still observed in these OSN conditions, strongly supports a solution-diffusion transfer mechanism through the PDMS. The treatment of ternary mixtures mimicking the catalyst/solute/ solvent mixture corresponding to the hydroformylation has also been studied; no evidence of coupling was detected, and the highest retention remained unchanged. On the other hand, the improvement of the rejection also observed from the porous membranes after modification. The rejection of C44 in the AMS was reached 75% after modification by tention10 bilayers of PDDA / PSS, whereas it was only 25% before modification. In the modified PAN, the rejection of the solutes obtained is in the range of 37 to 50%, whereas it was only 3 to 7% by weight before modification. The disadvantage of the porous membrane, however, is the sharp decrease in flux after the deposition of the multiple layers

The work and results presented in this dissertation concern two complimentary studies that are rooted in surface acoustic waves and transducer study. Surface acoustic wave devices are utilized in a variety of fields that span biomedical applications to radio wave transmitters and receivers. Of interest in this dissertation is the study of surface acoustic wave interaction with polydimethylsiloxane. This material, commonly known as PDMS, is widely used in the microfluidic field applications in order to create channels for fluid flow on the surface of a piezoelectric substrate. The size, and type of PDMS that is created and ultimately etched on the surface of the substrate, plays a significant role in its operation, chiefly in the insertion loss levels experienced. Here, through finite element analysis, via ANSYS® 15 Finite Element Modeling software, the insertion loss levels of varying PDMS sidewall channel dimensions, from two to eight millimeters is investigated. The simulation is modeled after previously published experimental data, and the results demonstrate a clear increase in insertion loss levels with an increase in channel sidewall dimensions. Analysis of the results further show that due to the viscoelastic nature of PDMS, there is a non -linear increase of insertion loss as the sidewall dimensions thicken. There is a calculated variation of 8.31 decibels between the insertion loss created in a microfluidic device with a PDMS channel sidewall thickness of eight millimeters verse a thickness of two millimeters. Finally, examination of the results show that insertion loss levels in a device are optimized when the PDMS sidewall channels are between two and four millimeters. The second portion of this dissertation concerns the calibration of an ultrasonic transducer. This work is inspired by the need to properly quantify the signal generated by an ultrasonic transducer, placed under a static loading condition, that will be used in measuring ultrasonic bone conducted frequency perception of human subjects. Ultrasonic perception, classified as perception beyond the typical hearing limit of approximately 20 kHz, is a subject of great interest in audiology. Among other reasons, ultrasonic signal perception in humans is of interest because the mechanism by which either the brain or the ear interprets these signals is not entirely understood. Previous studies have utilized ultrasonic transducers in order to study this ultrasonic perception; however, the calibration methods taken, were either incomplete or did not properly account for the operation conditions of the transducers. A novel transducer calibration method is detailed in this dissertation that resolves this issue and provides a reliable means by which the signal that is being created can be compared to the perception of human subjects.

Diseases are often diagnosed by detection of disease-specific biomarkers in fluid samples. However, many state-of-the-art detection methods require a lab with complex machinery, trained operators, and/or lengthy analysis time. In contrast, point-of-care (POC) devices are brought to the patient's location, they are easy to use, and results are obtained almost immediately. Many current POC devices are too difficult to be used without a skilled assistant, and although many are able to detect analytes above a threshold value, they give little or no quantitative information. This work presents the development of polymer-based microfluidic devices capable of sensing and quantifying biomarkers in fluid samples in a straightforward manner using a novel biomarker assay termed "flow valve diagnostics". In this assay, an antibody-modified polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchannel constricts due to the binding force between antibodies and antigens, stopping fluid flow. The flow distance is measured and correlated to antigen concentration. This detection method is an improvement over other methods because it is an innovative, non-instrumented, label-free, easy-to-use approach. These devices are small, portable, disposable, inexpensive, and thus ideal for use in POC testing. I have successfully fabricated flow valve devices with standard micromachining techniques, including photolithography, replica molding with PDMS, and plasma oxidation. Following fabrication, I compared two methods for attaching receptor biomolecules (e.g., antibodies) to the microchannel surfaces: non-specific adsorption and silanization with 3-glycidoxytrimethoxypropylsilane (GOPS). I used laser-induced fluorescence to determine that silanization with GOPS was the better method for biomolecule attachment. Finally, I tested antibody-modified flow valve devices with target antigens to determine if the antibody/antigen binding force was strong enough to cause channel pinching and flow stoppage. By modifying the device design and using higher antigen concentrations, I was able to show that flow valve devices can detect antigens in a concentration-dependent manner. Future work to improve the device design and to modify and test these devices with different receptor/target pairs will bring flow valve diagnostics closer to becoming a valuable asset in biomarker detection and POC testing.

O projeto de novos materiais para aplicações tecnológicas em biomateriais e bioengenharia é altamente dependente de como as células aderem à superfície de um material. A adesão e crescimento em biomateriais depende de propriedades do substrato, tais como molhabilidade da superfície, a topografia e a composição química de superfície. O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar as interações de diversos materiais com culturas celulares de células epitelial CHO (Ovário de Hamster Chinês). Os materiais utilizados foram SU-8 2005 (elétron-resiste, Microchem), PDMS (Poli (dimetil siloxano), Down Corning), DLC (Diamond-like Carbon) e vidro foi utilizado como referência. Superfícies de vidro, SU-8, PDMS e DLC lisas (planas) e isentas de modificação ou tratamento específico foram avaliadas quanto ao cultivo de células CHO. Valores médios dos fatores de forma (Ff) de 450 células foram calculados para cada uma das culturas realizadas sobre os 4 substratos. Foram obtidos Ff próximos a 0,52 para o vidro, o SU-8 liso e o DLC, demonstrando um bom espraiamento das células nessas superfícies. A superfície de PDMS apresentou valor unitário para o fator de forma (Ff), que está relacionado a um baixo espraiamento das células. A energia de superfície (ES) obtida para o PDMS é compatível com o resultado de fator de forma (Ff), uma vez que o menor valor para ES é coerente com a baixa adesão celular, o que gerou células com elevado fator de forma (Ff). O SU-8 foi modificado por implantação iônica com uma dose de 1,2x1016 átomos/cm2 e a energia de implantação foi de 8 keV, como referência foi utilizada uma superfície lisa de SU-8 sem implantação. Os resultados mostraram que o número de células vivas por unidade de área foi superior na superfície de SU-8 com prata implantada, mostrando o bom desempenho da cultura nesse substrato. As superfícies de DLC modificadas por tratamento com plasma de oxigênio (DLC-O) e com plasma de hexafluoreto de enxofre (DLC-F) foram utilizadas para cultura celular, os resultados de três experimentos independentes de contagem de número de núcleos (marcados com DAPI) por unidade de área confirmaram os resultados obtidos através do teste de viabilidade (marcados com trypan blue). A superfície de DLC-O, apresentou um maior número de núcleos por unidade de área, quando comparado à superfície DLC-F, da mesma forma que nos resultados obtidos pelo teste de viabilidade. As energias de superfície para as amostras de DLC-F e DLC-O indicaram que a superfície DLC-O é mais hidrofílica do que a superfície DLC-F, que está coerente com o que é conhecido da literatura e com os resultados obtidos em nosso trabalho. Cultura de células CHO foram realizadas em superfícies litografadas com estruturas hexagonais periódicas com o parâmetro 2R (diâmetro do círculo inscrito) sendo 12 µm, 30 µm, 80 µm, 280 µm, 560 µm e também em SU-8 liso. Estas superfícies foram caracterizadas por microscopia óptica de fluorescência com relação ao número de núcleos (marcados com o fluoróforo DAPI) por unidade de área, isto é, núcleos/mm2. Obteve-se histogramas com o número médio de núcleos por mm2 em três experimentos independentes, onde o número núcleos/mm2 foi consideravelmente maior para 80 µm. As superfícies contendo cavidades periódicas de 12 µm e 30 µm apresentaram dificuldade para as células CHO aderirem à superfície. Em uma outra etapa realizou-se culturas celulares em triplicata dos substratos com as superfícies 12 µm, 80 µm, 280 µm, 560 µm e também em SU-8 liso. As células em cada uma das superfícies foram analisadas por microscopia óptica (MO) para avaliação da viabilidade celular, utilizando marcador trypan blue. Obteve-se histogramas com os valores médios para o número de células vivas/mm2 para as culturas celulares que corrobora os resultados obtidos no histograma da cultura celular que tiveram os núcleos marcados pelo fluoróforo DAPI. Assim, fica confirmado o melhor desempenho da cultura celular no substrato 80 µm que apresentou o maior número de células vivas/mm2 As micrografias obtidas através de marcação por DAPI foram analisadas através da função de correlação com intuito de se entender como as células estavam organizadas. Isso foi feito para cada uma das superfícies litografadas, 12 µm, 30 µm, 80 µm, 280 µm, 560 µm e também em SU-8 liso. As superfícies dos substratos 80 µm apresentaram os menores valores de distâncias para primeiros e segundos vizinhos, ou seja, as células estão mais próximas umas das outras. As demais superfícies tendem a separar mais as células. Obteve-se também os valores de raio de aglomerado (rc), distância entre os aglomerados (dc) e o número de primeiros vizinhos (Np) através do ajuste da função de correlação. A análise de correlação mostrou com clareza o que não era evidenciado apenas visualizando-se as imagens. Ela mostra que as células, mesmo em SU-8 liso tem a forte tendência de formar aglomerados de células com raio de aproximadamente 45 µm. No caso de substratos lisos, células CHO apresentaram a melhor adesão na superfície do SU-8, seguido do DLC, enquanto que o PDMS foi a pior situação, devido à baixa molhabilidade do material. No caso de superfícies com microestrutura, SU-8 contendo microcavidades hexagonais de 12 e 30 µm mostraram ser as situações mais adversas para o crescimento de células CHO, provavelmente por causa da topografia das cavidades serem de menor tamanho quando comparadas ao tamanho das células CHO. Em vez disso, SU-8, contendo microcavidades hexagonais de 80 µm foi a superfície mais favorável para o crescimento de células CHO.
The design of new materials for technological applications in biomaterials and bioengineering is highly dependent on how the cells adhere to the material surface. The cells adhesion and growth on biomaterials depends on substrate properties such as surface wettability, topography and the chemical composition. The aim of this study was to investigate the interactions of various materials with cell cultures of epithelial cells CHO (Chinese Hamster Ovary). The materials used were SU-8 2005 (electron resists, Microchem), PDMS (poly (dimethyl siloxane), Dow Corning), DLC (Diamond-like Carbon) and glass was used as reference. Unmodified and flat surfaces of glass, SU-8, PDMS and DLC were evaluated for the culture of CHO cells. Form factor (Ff) values were calculated as average of 450 cells for each of the cultures performed on the four substrates. Ff close to 0.52 was obtained for flat surfaces of glass, SU-8 and DLC, showing a good cell spreading on these surfaces. The surface of PDMS presented a form factor (Ff) near unity, which is related to low spreading cell. The surface energy (ES) obtained for the PDMS is coherent with the Ff result, since the smallest value of ES is consistent with the low cell adhesion, which resulted in cells with a high Ff. The SU-8 was modified by ion implantation using a dose of 1.2x1016 atoms/cm2 and an implantation energy of 8 keV, unmodified flat SU-8 was used as a reference. The cell culture results showed that the number of live cells per unit area was greater in the SU-8 surface implanted with silver, showing a good performance in the culture substrate. The DLC surfaces modified by plasma treatment with oxygen (DLC-O) and sulfur hexafluoride (DLC-F) were used for cell culture. The results of three independent experiments, counting the number of nuclei (marked with DAPI) per unit area, confirmed the results obtained by the viability test (marked with trypan-blue). The surface of the DLC-O had higher number of nuclei per unit area when compared to the surface of the DLC-F, similarly to the results obtained for the viability test. The surface energies of the DLC-F and DLC-O samples indicated that the DLC-O surface is more hydrophilic than the DLC-F surface, which is consistent with results obtained with our work and with the literature. CHO cell culture were performed on surfaces with periodic hexagonal structures with the diameter of inscribed circle (2R) given by 12 µm, 30 µm, 80 µm, 280 µm, 560 µm and also on flat SU-8. These surfaces were characterized by fluorescence optical microscopy with respect to the number of nuclei (marked with fluorophore DAPI) per unit area, i.e. nuclei/mm2. Histograms were obtained for the average number of nuclei per mm2 in three independent experiments, where the substrate with periodic hexagonal structures with 2R = 80 µm presented considerably higher nuclei/mm2. Surfaces containing periodic cavities of 2R =12 µm and 30 µm were adverse for CHO cells adhesion. In another approach, cell culture were analyzed by light microscopy (LM) for evaluation of cell viability using trypan-blue marker. This was carried out in triplicate cell culture on substrates with surfaces 12 µm, 80 µm, 280 µm, 560 µm and also on flat SU-8. Histograms were generated for average number of living cells/mm2 for each substrate, which corroborates with the results obtained for the cell culture marked with fluorophore DAPI. Thus, it is confirmed the better performance of the cell culture on substrates with 2R = 80 µm, presenting the highest number of living cells/mm2. The micrographs obtained with cells marked with DAPI were analyzed through the correlation function with the aim of understanding how the cells were organized. This was performed for each of the lithographed surfaces 12 µm, 30 µm, 80 µm, 280 µm, 560 µm and also flat SU-8. The surfaces of the substrates with 2R = 80 µm had the lowest values for length between its neighbors, that is, the cells are closer to each other. The remaining surfaces tend to separate the cells. Also were obtained the cluster radius values (rc), the distance between the clusters (dc) and the number of nearest neighbors (Np) through the correlation function fitting. The correlation analysis clearly showed what was not possible to observe by viewing the images. It shows that the cells, even in flat SU-8, have a strong tendency to form clusters of cells within about 45 micrometers. In the case of flat substrates, CHO cells exhibited better adhesion to the surface of SU-8, followed by the DLC, while the PDMS was worse due to low wettability of the material. In the case of surfaces with microstructures, SU-8 containing hexagonal microstructures of 12 and 30 µm showed to be the most adverse conditions for the CHO cell growth, probably because of the topography of the cavities being smaller in size compared to the size of CHO cells. SU-8 with 80 µm hexagonal microstructures was more favorable surface for the growth of CHO cells.

For over a century, Langmuir films have served as excellent two-dimensional model systems for studying the conformation and ordering of amphiphilic molecules at the air/water (A/W) interface. With the equipment of Wilhelmy plate technique, Brewster angle microscopy (BAM), and surface light scattering (SLS), the interfacial phase and rheological behavior of Langmuir films can be investigated. In this dissertation, these techniques are employed to examine Langmuir films of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS), polymer blends, and magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). In a first time, SLS is employed to study POSS molecules. The interfacial rheological properties of trisilanolisobutyl-POSS (TiBuP) indicate that TiBuP forms a viscoelastic Langmuir film that is almost perfectly elastic in the monolayer state with a maximum dynamic dilational elasticity of around 50 mNâ m-1 prior to film collapse. This result suggests that TiBuP can serve as model nanofiller with polymers. As an interesting next step, blends of TiBuP and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with different compositions are examined via surface pressure (surface pressureâ surface area occupied per molecule (A) isotherms and SLS. The results show that TiBuP, with its attendant water, serves as a plasticizer and lowers the dilational modulus of the films at low surface pressure. As surface pressure increases, composition dependent behavior occurs. Around the collapse pressure of PDMS, the TiBuP component is able to form networks at the A/W interface as PDMS collapse into the upper layer. Blends of non-amphiphilic octaisobutyl-POSS (OiBuP) and PDMS are also studied as an interesting comparison to TiBuP/PDMS blends. In these blends, OiBuP serves as a filler and reinforces the blends prior to the collapse of PDMS by forming â bridgeâ structure on top of PDMS monolayer. However, OiBuP is non-amphiphilic and fails to anchor PDMS chains to the A/W interface. Hence, OiBuP/PDMS blends exhibit negligible dilational viscoelasticity after the collapse of PDMS. Furthermore, the phase behavior of PDMS blended with a trisilanol-POSS derivative containing different substituents, trisilanolcyclopentyl-POSS (TCpP), is also investigated via the Wilhelmy plate technique and BAM. These TCpP/PDMS blends exhibit dramatically different phase behavior and morphological features from previously studied POSS/PDMS blends, showing that the organic substituents on trisilanol-POSS have considerable impact on the phase behavior of POSS/PDMS blends. The interfacial rheological behavior of tricarboxylic acid terminated PDMS (PDMS-Stabilizer) and PDMS stabilized MNPs are investigated and compared with â regularâ PDMS containing non-polar end groups. The tricarboxylic acid end group of the PDMS-Stabilizer leads to a different collapse mechanism. The PDMS stabilized MNPs exhibit viscoelastic behavior that is similar to PDMS showing all the tricarboxylic acid end groups are bound to the magnetite cores. Studying the interfacial behavior of different Langmuir films at the A/W interface provides us insight into the impact of molecule-molecule and molecule-subphase interactions on film morphology and rheology. These results are able to serve as important guides for designing surface films with preferred morphological and mechanical properties.
Ph. D.

Les caractéristiques chimiques, énergétiques et morphologiques des silices pyrogéniques de surface spécifique allant de 50 à 400 M2/g sont reliées à leurs comportements dans des mélanges polymères/charges. Cinq modes d'adsorption sont sélectionnées : voie chimique (greffage), condensation d'azote à basse température (surface spécifique, BET), introduction d'alcanes et de siloxanes à haute température (chromatographie gazeuse inverse à dilution infinie), échange calorifique avec des polydiméthylsiloxane de différentes masses molaires en solution (microcalorimétrie à écoulement) et adsorption de ces mêmes PDMS en mélange massique. L'adsorption des molécules sondes à la surface des silices est contrôlée par trois effets : stérique, physico-chimique et arrangement spatiale des particules
The chemical, energetic and morphological characters of series fumed silicas ranging from 500 to 400 M /g are related to their behaviours in polymer/filler mixture. Five methods of adsorption are selected: chemical approach (grafting), condensation of nitrogen at low température (specific surface, BET), introducing alkanes and siloxanes at high température (inverse gas chromatography at infinite dilution), heat exchange with différent molecular weight of polydimethylsiloxane in solution (Flow microcalorimetry) and adsorption of the same PDMS in dry mixture. The adsorption of the molécules probes on the surface of the silicas is controlled by three major effects: steric, physico-chemical and the degree of particles packing

This thesis describes two separate projects. The first is a theoretical and experimental investigation of surface acoustic wave streaming in microfluidics. The second is the development of a novel acoustic glucose sensor. A separate abstract is given for each here. Optimization of acoustic streaming in microfluidic channels by SAWs Surface Acoustic Waves, (SAWs) actuated on flat piezoelectric substrates constitute a convenient and versatile tool for microfluidic manipulation due to the easy and versatile interfacing with microfluidic droplets and channels. The acoustic streaming effect can be exploited to drive fast streaming and pumping of fluids in microchannels and droplets (Shilton et al. 2014; Schmid et al. 2011), as well as size dependant sorting of particles in centrifugal flows and vortices (Franke et al. 2009; Rogers et al. 2010). Although the theory describing acoustic streaming by SAWs is well understood, very little attention has been paid to the optimisation of SAW streaming by the correct selection of frequency. In this thesis a finite element simulation of the fluid streaming in a microfluidic chamber due to a SAW beam was constructed and verified against micro-PIV measurements of the fluid flow in a fabricated device. It was found that there is an optimum frequency that generates the fastest streaming dependent on the height and width of the chamber. It is hoped this will serve as a design tool for those who want to optimally match SAW frequency with a particular microfluidic design. An acoustic glucose sensor Diabetes mellitus is a disease characterised by an inability to properly regulate blood glucose levels. In order to keep glucose levels under control some diabetics require regular injections of insulin. Continuous monitoring of glucose has been demonstrated to improve the management of diabetes (Zick et al. 2007; Heinemann & DeVries 2014), however there is a low patient uptake of continuous glucose monitoring systems due to the invasive nature of the current technology (Ramchandani et al. 2011). In this thesis a novel way of monitoring glucose levels is proposed which would use ultrasonic waves to ‘read’ a subcutaneous glucose sensitive-implant, which is only minimally invasive. The implant is an acoustic analogy of a Bragg stack with a ‘defect’ layer that acts as the sensing layer. A numerical study was performed on how the physical changes in the sensing layer can be deduced by monitoring the reflection amplitude spectrum of ultrasonic waves reflected from the implant. Coupled modes between the skin and the sensing layer were found to be a potential source of error and drift in the measurement. It was found that by increasing the number of layers in the stack that this could be minimized. A laboratory proof of concept system was developed using a glucose sensitive hydrogel as the sensing layer. It was possible to monitor the changing thickness and speed of sound of the hydrogel due to physiological relevant changes in glucose concentration.

Ce manuscrit de thèse porte sur la formation de masques de réseaux denses de nanopiliers ou nanotrous à partir de l'auto-assemblage de copolymères à blocs (CPB) à haute force de ségrégation, pour des applications dans la micro-électronique. Des copolymères à blocs, de type ABA, constitués d'un bloc central de polydiméthylsiloxane (PDMS) et de deux blocs terminaux de polylactide (PLA) ont été synthétisés par polymérisation par ouverture de cycle. Les caractérisations de deux CPB d'intérêt en masse et sous forme de film mince montrent une mesostructure hexagonale sphérique et cylindrique de PLA dans la matrice de PDMS,avec des périodes de 14,3 et 15,5 nm respectivement. Afin de contrôler l'organisation des domaines, les autoassemblages des films minces des deux CPB ont été étudiés en fonction de plusieurs facteurs : paramètres de dépôt et post-traitements (exposition à des vapeurs de solvant et recuit thermique). Dans le cas du réseau hexagonal cylindrique, le contrôle des énergies interfaciales entre le film et le substrat de silicium a été obtenu grâce au greffage d'une couche de copolymères statistique ayant des blocs chimiquement différent des blocs contenus dans le CPB. Par ailleurs, à des fins industrielles, les mesostructures doivent montrer une organisation à grande échelle (plusieurs micromètres) dépourvue de défauts. Dans cette perspective, l'auto-assemblage des CPB a aussi été étudié sur des surfaces à topographie contrôlée (graphoépitaxie) montrant un relief sinusoïdal.

In spite of the stablility (lack of reactivity) of diamond powder, I have developed a method for tethering alkyl chains and polymers to deuterium/hydrogen-terminated diamond. One method is through ether linkages via thermolysis of di-tert-amyl peroxide (DTAP). This reaction with DTAP has also been applied to grow polymers on the diamond surface. The other method is atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), which was applied to grow polystyrene at the surface of diamond. Both polystyrene-modified diamond and sulfonated polystyrene-modified diamond can be prepared by either method, and can be used for solid phase extraction. Diamond stationary phases are stable under basic conditions, which is not the case for silica-based stationary phases. Surface characterization was performed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) and diffuse reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (DRIFT). While the main focus of my graduate research has been the surface modification of diamond, I also describe other projects on which I have worked. The use of radical-based processes for modifying diamond is related to a different radical-based synthesis of monolayers or polymers I performed by scribing silicon (Siscr). After preparation of homogeneous olefin-terminated monolayers on scribed silicon made from 1,9-decadiene and chemisorption of Grubbs' catalyst, ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of norbornene was demonstrated. These surfaces were characterized by XPS and ToF-SIMS. I also investigated the extent of PDMS oligomers transfer onto different surfaces with a wide range of hydrophobicities, using an uninked, unpatterned PDMS stamp. The effect of surface free energy on PDMS transfer in microcontact printing was investigated and the relationship between the amount of PDMS in ToF-SIMS spectra and the surface tensions of initial surfaces was revealed. Therefore, PDMS transfer can be applied as a probe of surface free energies using ToF-SIMS, where PDMS preferentially transfers onto more hydrophilic surface features during stamping, with little transfer onto very hydrophobic surface features. In much of my thesis work, I performed multivariate analysis of my data, especially of my ToF-SIMS data. Such chemometrics methods include principle components analysis (PCA), partial least squares (PLS) cluster analysis, and multivariate curve resolution (MCR). I also applied these tools to analyze electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometry data from a lipidomics study.

Dans cette thèse, nous avons travaillé sur la mise au point de surfaces superhydrophobes modèles dont la mouillabilité peut être contrôlée par un stimulus externe. Composées de forêts de piliers micrométriques élastomères à forts rapports d'aspect dans lesquels sont incorporées des particules magnétiques, les surfaces présentent, via l'application d'un champ magnétique externe, une orientation modulable des piliers, donc une rugosité de surface adaptable. En faisant varier la géométrie, l'élasticité et l'aimantation de ces derniers, nous avons pu mettre en évidence les points suivants. Nous avons vu dans un premier temps qu’en accord avec la littérature, et en l’absence de champ magnétique, l’hystérèse de mouillage augmente avec la fraction de surface. Cependant, elle reste constante lorsque l’élasticité des piliers varie. Résultat déroutant, car à l’échelle du pilier, il existe bel et bien une différence de mobilité des piliers entre les piliers les plus rigides et les plus complaisants qui subissent la traction de la ligne triple.Nous avons ensuite montré que l’orientation des piliers changeait significativement l’angle de glissement via l’application d’un champ magnétique. De plus, le glissement de la goutte sur la surface est favorisé lorsque les piliers sont orientés à l’opposé de la pente. Enfin, nous avons pu contrôler la façon dont une goutte d’eau se déplace sur une surface inclinée en deçà de l’angle de glissement, puisqu’elle n’avance vers le bas de la surface que si une actuation magnétique est appliquée. Ces surfaces seront une source d’étude intéressante pour comprendre comment moduler le mouillage ou l’écoulement de liquide en état fakir
During this thesis, we have developped superhydrophobic surfaces whose wettability can be controlled by an external magnetic stimulus. Formulating a network of elastomeric and magnetic micro-pillars with high aspect ratio allows the orientation of the pillars through magnetic forces, hence an adaptable surface roughness. Moreover, modulating the geometry, elasticity and magnetization of pillars allowed us to highlight the following conclusions.We have seen first that in agreement with the literature, without magnetic field, the wetting hysteresis increased with the surface fraction. However, it remains constant varying the elasticity of pillars. This conclusion is confusing, because at the pillar scale, there is indeed a difference of mobility between rigid and flexible pillars due to the force exerted by the triple line.We then demonstrated that the deflexion of the pillars can change significantly the sliding angle due to the applied magnetic field. Moreover, sliding of the droplet on such a surface is promoted when pillars are deflected against the slope.Finally, we managed to control the displacement of a droplet on a surface which is tilted with an angle below the sliding angle : it moves forward from the surface only if magnetic actuation is applied. This surfaces will be an attractive source of study in order to understand how to modulate wetting and liquid flow in fakir state

Biomaterials have evolved over the years from the passive role of mere biocompatibility to an increasingly active role of presenting instructive cues to elicit precise responses at the molecular and cellular levels. Various characteristics common to synthetic biomaterials in vitro and extracellular matrices in vivo, such as immobilized functional or peptide groups, mechanical stiffness, bulk physical properties and topographical features, are key players that regulate cell response. The dynamics in the cell microenvironment and at the cell adhesive interface trigger a web of cell-material and cell-cell information exchanges that have a profound impact in directing the ultimate cell fate decision. Therefore, comprehension of cell substrate interactions is crucial to propel forward the evolution of new instructive biomaterials. Combinatorial biomaterials that encompass a wide range of properties can help to recapitulate the complexity of a cell microenvironment. The objective of this research was to fabricate combinatorial biomaterials with properties that span wide ranges in both surface chemistries and mechanical moduli. These materials were based on polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS), an elastomeric silicone biomaterial with physiologically relevant stiffness. After developing these mechano-chemical gradient biomaterials, we conducted high throughput screening of cell responses on them to elucidate cell substrate interactions and material directed behaviors. Our central hypothesis was that materials encompassing monotonic gradients in mechanical elastic modulus and orthogonal surface chemistry gradients could be engineered using the soft biomaterial, polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) and that these gradient biomaterials would evoke a varied cell response. Furthermore, we expected high throughput screening of cell-material interactions using these materials would elucidate patterns and thresholds of synergy or antagonism in the overall cell response to the increased complexity presented by combinatorial materials. First, reproducible gradients in surface chemistry were generated on PDMS through surface modification techniques. Cell response to PDMS surface chemistry gradients was then screened in a rapid high throughput manner. Additionally, characteristics of the adhesive interface were probed to understand its role in cell response. Finally, a 2D combinatorial gradient with a gradient in mechanical elastic modulus and an orthogonal gradient in surface chemistry was fabricated with PDMS. High throughput screening of the synergistic influence of the varied mechanical and biochemical extracellular signals presented by the combinatorial biomaterial on cell response was conducted in a systematic manner. This research demonstrates the fabrication of combinatorial biomaterials with a wide range of mechanochemical properties for rapid screening of cell response; a technique that will facilitate the development of biomaterial design criteria for numerous biomedical engineering applications including in vitro cell culture platforms and tissue engineering.

Numerous applications in neuroscience research and neural prosthetics, such as retinal prostheses, spinal-cord surface stimulation for prosthetics, electrocorticogram (ECoG) recording for epilepsy detection, etc., involve electrical interaction with soft excitable tissues using a surface stimulation and/or recording approach. These applications require an interface that is able to set up electrical communications with a high throughput between electronics and the excitable tissue and that can dynamically conform to the shape of the soft tissue. Being a compliant and biocompatible material with mechanical impedance close to that of soft tissues, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) offers excellent potential as the substrate material for such neural interfaces. However, fabrication of electrical functionalities on PDMS has long been very challenging. This thesis work has successfully overcome many challenges associated with PDMS-based microfabrication and achieved an integrated technology platform for PDMS-based stretchable microelectrode arrays (sMEAs). This platform features a set of technological advances: (1) we have fabricated uniform current density profile microelectrodes as small as 10 microns in diameter; (2) we have patterned high-resolution (feature as small as 10 microns), high-density (pitch as small as 20 microns) thin-film gold interconnects on PDMS substrate; (3) we have developed a multilayer wiring interconnect technology within the PDMS substrate to further boost the achievable integration density of such sMEA; and (4) we have invented a bonding technology---via-bonding---to facilitate high-resolution, high-density integration of the sMEA with integrated circuits (ICs) to form a compact implant. Taken together, this platform provides a high-resolution, high-density integrated system solution for neural and muscular surface interfacing. sMEAs of example designs are evaluated through in vitro and in vivo experimentations on their biocompatibility, surface conformability, and surface recording/stimulation capabilities, with a focus on epimysial (i.e. on the surface of muscle) applications. Finally, as an example medical application, we investigate a prosthesis for unilateral vocal cord paralysis (UVCP) based on simultaneous multichannel epimysial recording and stimulation.

L’adhérence et le frottement existent dans de nombreux systèmes techniques ainsi que dans les systèmes naturels. Ces deux phénomènes ont une influence importante sur la durabilité et l’efficacité des dispositifs techniques. Une approche reconnue pour ajuster précisément ces caractéristiques - outre le fait de modifier les propriétés physico-chimiques - est la texturation des surfaces en contact. Les surfaces de feuilles de plantes sont souvent décorées avec des morphologies de surface diverses, et présentent ainsi des fonctionnalités de surface remarquables. Cette thèse visait à réaliser une étude systématique de la mécanique de l’adhérence et du frottement sur des surfaces micro-structurées, répliquées à partir de surfaces de feuilles végétales, en contact avec une sonde qui s’inspire de l’organe adhérent d’un insecte. Les morphologies de surface de trois feuilles végétales différentes ont été directement transférées sur un polymère viscoélastique. Pour ce faire, trois approches différentes de reproduction ont fait l’objet d’une étude approfondie. La microscopie électronique à balayage et la microscopie confocale à balayage laser ont été utilisées pour l'évaluation qualitative et quantitative de la qualité de reproduction. Concernant l’étude de la mécanique du contact, un nano-indenteur a été modifié, permettant d’enregistrer les images in situ des contacts réels. Des tests de pull-off ont été menés afin d’évaluer quantitativement l’effet de la pré-charge sur la force d’adhésion et pour comprendre les modes distincts de collage/décollement. Des essais de frottement ont été effectués afin d’examiner l’effet de la charge normale et de la vitesse de glissement sur la force de frottement. Les résultats ont été discutés en fonction de la topographie de chaque surface
Adhesion and friction exist in many technical systems as well as in natural ones. Both phenomena have a profound influence on the durability and efficiency of technical systems. A well-recognised way to tune these characteristics - besides altering the physicochemical properties - is the texturing of the interacting surfaces. Inspiringly, plant leaf surfaces are often decorated with diverse surface morphologies, and so show remarkable functionalities. This thesis aimed to perform a systematic investigation of adhesion and friction mechanics on micro-structured surfaces replicated from plant leaves, in contact with a probe, which was inspired from an insect’s adhesive pad. Surface morphologies of three different plant leaves were directly transferred onto a viscoelastic polymer. For this, three different replication approaches were comprehensively explored. Scanning electron microscopy and confocal laser scanning microscopy were used for the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of replication ability. For the contact mechanics investigation, a high-resolution nanoindenter was modified, with incorporating a unique feature to record the in-situ real-contact images. Pull-off tests were carried out to quantitatively evaluate the effect of pre-load on adhesion force characteristics and to understand distinct attachment-detachment modes. Friction investigations were performed to examine the effect of normal load and sliding speed on the friction force. Results were discussed with regard to each surface’s topography

A spin-cast silicone membrane has been successfully bonded between two injection-molded microstructured plastic discs. This sandwich structure creates a useful platform for mass production of microfluidic systems, provided that the bonds are leakproof. The bonds were achieved by a silicon dioxide coating deposited on the plastic discs by evaporation. This investigation is concerned with the process and the result only, no theory is discussed.

Particle separation is of great interest to many biological and biomedical applications. Flow-based methods have been used to sort particles and cells. However, the main challenge with flow based particle separation systems is the need for a sheath flow for successful operation. Existence of the sheath liquid dilutes the analyte, necessitates precise flow control between sample and sheath flow, requires a complicated design to create sheath flow and separation efficiency depends on the sheath liquid composition. In addition, current gold standard active separation techniques are only capable of separation based on particle size; hence, separation cannot be achieved for same-size particles with different densities. In this dissertation, a sheathless acoustic-based microfluidic platform using surface acoustic wave for not only size-dependent but also density-dependent particle separation has been investigated. In this platform, two different functions were incorporated within a single microfluidic channel with varying the number of pressure node and position. The first function was to align particles on the center of the microfluidic channel without adding any external sheath flow. The second function was to separate particles according to their size or density. Two different size-pairs of polystyrene particles with different diameters (3 µm and 10 µm for general size-resolution, 3 µm and 5 µm for higher size-resolution) were successfully separated. Also, the separation of two 10 µm diameter, different-density particle streams (polystyrene: 1.05 g/cm3, melamine: 1.71 g/cm3) was successfully demonstrated. The effects of the input power, the flow rate, and particle concentration on the separation efficiency were investigated. A range of high separation efficiencies with 94.8-100 % for size-based separation and 87.2 - 98.9 % for density-based separation were accomplished. In this dissertation, an acoustic-based microfluidic platform using dual acoustic streaming for active mixing has also been investigated. The rapid and high efficiency mixing of a fluorescent dye solution and deionized water in a microfluidic channel was demonstrated with single acoustic excitation by one interdigital transducer (IDT) as well as dual excitation by two IDTs. The mixing efficiencies were investigated as a function of applied voltage and flow rates. The results indicate that with the same operation parameters, the mixing efficiency with dual-IDT design increased to 96.7 % from 69.8 % achievable with the traditional single-IDT design. The effect of aperture length of the IDT on mixing efficiency was also investigated. Additionally, the effects of the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) channel wall thickness on the insertion loss and the particle migration to the pressure node due to acoustic radiation forces induced by SAW have been investigated. The results indicate that as the PDMS channel wall thickness decreased, the SAW insertion loss is reduced as well as the velocity of the particle migration due to acoustic forces increased significantly. As an example, reducing the side wall thickness of the PDMS channel from 8 mm to 2 mm in the design results in 31.2 % decrease in the insertion loss at the resonant frequency of 13.3 MHz and 186 % increase the particle migration velocity at the resonant frequency of 13.3 MHz with input power of 27 dBm. Lastly, a novel acoustic-based method of manipulating the particles using phase-shift has been proposed and demonstrated. The location of the pressure node was adjusted simply by modulating the relative phase difference (phase-shift) between two IDTs. As a result, polystyrene particles of 5 µm diameter trapped in the pressure node were manipulated laterally across the microfluidic channel. The lateral displacements of the particles from -72.5 µm to 73.1 µm along the x-direction were accomplished by varying the phase-shift with a range of -180° to 180°. The relationship between the particle displacement and the phase-shift of SAW was obtained experimentally and shown to agree with theoretical prediction of the particle position.

In this study, a surface with patterned wettability by means of surface structuring, rather than through modifying the surface chemistry, was developed. The device presented in this thesis was inspired by the Namib Desert Bettle, which collects water from the fog by having hydrophilic spots surrounded by hydrophobic wax-coated regions on its back. Besides water collection, controlling the wetting behaviour locally on the surface may find applications within droplet-based microfluidics, or fabrication of DNA, protein or cell microarrays. Spatial wetting contrast was achieved through replica moulding of the elastomer polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), using a copper and/or the epoxy-based SU-8 photoresist surface as a template. Different types of surface roughness was produced and characterized on polycrystalline copper, through etching, oxidation, electrodeposition, or a combination. Regions with no surface roughness was patterned on the template moulds through conventional UV-photolithography processing of SU-8. The PDMS replicas were then tested for the ability to capture water droplets selectively on the patterned spots. Through characterization of the surface roughness by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), copper plates etched with a solution of CuCl2 and HCl produced the highest amount of surface roughness, with longer etching times leading to increased surface roughness. To characterize the hydrophobicity, the contact angle was measured for droplets deposited on the rough PDMS surfaces. Through surface structuring, the contact angle was increased from 101.8 ± 3.6◦ for a flat surface, to 154.7 ± 5.3◦ for the PDMS surface with the highest roughness. The polarity of surface roughness was also found to play an important role in the wetting behaviour, with a higher number of peaks than valleys being preferable. The fabricated PDMS surfaces showed spatial wetting contrast, as demonstrated in the cover photo. The device needs further optimization in terms of increasing the hydrophobicity of the rough regions, as well as changing the pattern geometries. However, the discoveries made in this study may be useful for further development and integration with droplet-moving mechanisms, for future lab-on-a-chip applications within medical diagnostics or chemical analysis.

This thesis describes two types of approaches for reducing the incidence of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), which are chemical approaches that inactivate bacteria that adhere to the surface i.e. bactericidal activity and physical approaches that inhibit initial bacterial attachment to the surface i.e. anti-biofouling activity. Specifically, the antimicrobial polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based systems detailed in this thesis are: (i) photosensitizer, crystal violet (CV),-coated PDMS for both medical device and hospital touch surface applications, (ii) crystal violet-coated, zinc oxide nanoparticle-encapsulated PDMS for hospital touch surface applications, (iii) superhydrophobic antibacterial copper coated PDMS films via aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD) for hospital touch surface applications and (iv) slippery copper-coated PDMS films to prevent biofilm formation on medical devices. The materials were characterized using techniques including: X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-vis absorbance spectroscopy, water-contact angle measurement and microbiology tests. Functional testing indicated that CV-coated samples were suitable for targeted applications and showed potent light-activated antimicrobial activity when tested against model Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, and Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli, associated with hospital-acquired infections, with > 4 log reduction in viable bacterial numbers observed. On the other hand, CVD modified samples demonstrated highly significant antibacterial activity against both bacteria (> 4 log reduction in bacterial numbers) under dark conditions. Moreover, they resulted in a significant reduction in bacterial cell adhesion compared to PDMS and glass controls. However, superhydrophobic materials accumulated biofilm of both bacteria over a 2-day period while slippery materials significantly prevented biofilm formation over the same period. The novel and highly efficacious antibacterial materials reported in this thesis show a very strong potential to be utilized in hospital environments for reducing the incidence of HAIs.

Diverses methodes sont utilisees pour etudier les films d'un polymere, le polydimethylsiloxane (pdms), a la surface de l'eau et des solutions aqueuses de tensioactif. Le comportement du film depend du substrat et se montre qualitativement different dans les trois cas etudies. Sur l'eau, les mesures de la tension superficielle, des proprietes rheologiques et de l'ellipticite du film du polymere suggerent la separation laterale en domaines de densite de surface differente, a la fois lorsque la concentration superficielle moyenne est basse et lorsqu'elle est superieure a celle du collapse de la monocouche. La microscopie a l'angle de brewster, recemment developpee dans le laboratoire, visualise ces domaines et permet de suivre leur evolution dans le temps. Les domaines isoles sont circulaires quand ils sont petits; les temps de relaxation de domaines deformes sont mesures. Ces temps de relaxation, conjointement aux tres basses viscosites de surface deduites d'autres mesures, suggerent que les tensions de ligne sont tres faibles. De petits changements dans les conditions experimentales peuvent entrainer la destabilisation des parois des domaines. Sur les solutions concentrees de tensioactif, une separation verticale en couches tensioactive et polymerique superposees est mise en evidence, avec un melange entre les deux couches qui depend du tensioactif. De plus, sur l'un des deux tensioactifs etudies, une separation laterale en domaines de la monocouche du polymere est aussi observee; ces domaines montrent des differences subtiles par rapport a ceux observes sur l'eau

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Polymer, Textile and Fiber Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009.
Committee Chair: Dr. Haskell W. Beckham; Committee Member: Dr. Anselm Griffin; Committee Member: Dr. Johannes Leisen; Committee Member: Dr. Sankar Nair; Committee Member: Dr. Uwe Bunz.

Le potentiel du polydiméthylsiloxane (PDMS), élastomère transparent et déformable réversiblement en temps réel, est mis en avant dans ce travail comme substrat fonctionnel dans le domaine de l’optique et du mouillage. Dans une première partie, nous avons développé des surfaces de PDMS ridées à l’aide d’instabilités de flambage, de longueurs d’onde (λ) et d’amplitude (A) variables et contrôlées, puis nous avons organisé sélectivement des nano-objets sur cette texturation de surface avec afin d’en moduler la physico-chimie. Dans une seconde partie, la génération, in situ, de nano-plots/nanoparticules d’or et d’argent à la surface de verre et de PDMS a été étudiée et caractérisée d’un point de vue optique
The polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a transparent and stretchable elastomer, is put forward in this work as a functional substrate in the field of optics and wetting. In the first part, we have developed wrinkled PDMS surfaces via controlled buckling instabilities. We were able to tune both the wavelength (λ) and the amplitude (A) of the structuration on a large length scale. We have then selectively organized some nanoparticles the textured surfaces in order to modulate its physical-chemistry. In the second part, in situ generation of gold and silver nanoparticles/plots has been developed and studied both on glass PDMS surfaces and subsequently characterized optically

Microcantilevers have been investigated as high sensitivity, label free biosensors for approximately 15 years. In nearly all cases, a thin gold film deposited on the microcantilevers is used as an intermediate attachment layer because of the convenience of thiol-gold chemistry. Unfortunately, this attachment chemistry can be unstable when used with complex sample media such as blood plasma. The Nordin group at BYU has recently developed an all-silicon in-plane photonic microcantilever (PMCL) technology to serve as a platform for label-free biosensing. It has the advantage of being readily scalable to simultaneous readout of many PMCLs in array format, and allows integration with polymer microfluidics to facilitate the introduction of biological samples and reagents. An essential processing step for the transformation of the PMCL into a practical biosensor is the ability to effectively immobilize active biological receptors directly on silicon PMCL surfaces such that ligand binding generates sufficient surface stress to cause measureable PMCL deflection. This dissertation presents the development of a method to functionalize the sensor surface of all-silicon in-plane photonic microcantilever (PMCL) arrays. This method employs a materials inkjet printer for non-contact jetting and a fluid that is custom designed for ink-jetting and biological applications with approximately 1 pL droplet size. The method facilitates the application of different receptors on select PMCLs with drop placement accuracy in the +/- 7.5 μm range. The functionalization fluid facilitates further processing using humidity control to achieve full coverage of only the PMCL's top surface and removal of dissolved salts to improve uniformity of receptor coverage and to prevent fouling of the sensor surface. Once a functionalization method was successfully developed, a series of experiments were performed to investigate the amount of surface stress that can be generated when receptors are immobilized directly to the silicon surface. In one series of experiments, a 4.8 μM streptavidin solution was used with biotin immobilized on multiple PMCLs to demonstrate adsorption-induced surface stress and concomitant deflection of the PMCL. The group observed ~ 15 nm PMCL deflection on average, with a corresponding surface stress of approximately 4 mN/m. These experiments yield the sensor response in real-time and employ a combination of multiple PMCLs functionalized as either sensors or unfunctionalized to serve as references. Investigation of various attachment chemistries is included, as well as a comparison with and without passivation of non-sensor surfaces. Investigated passivation strategies prevented ligand binding from generating a differential surface stress. Failure modes and physical mechanisms for adsorption-induced surface stress are discussed. Immobilization and passivation strategies for antibody-based biosensing are demonstrated with fluorescence microscopy and a corresponding PMCL sensing experiment using rabbit anti-goat F(ab') fragments as the receptors and Alex Fluor 488 labeled goat anti-rabbit IgGs as the ligand. While the results of these experiments remain inconclusive, suggestions for future research involving the PMCL sensor array are recommended.

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Materials Science and Engineering Program, 2006.
Includes bibliographical references.

This work explores mechanisms for pattern formation through coupled bulksurface partial differential equations of reaction-diffusion type. Reaction-diffusion systems posed both in the bulk and on the surface on stationary volumes are coupled through linear Robin-type boundary conditions. In this framework we study three different systems as follows (i) non-linear reactions in the bulk and surface respectively, (ii) non-linear reactions in the bulk and linear reactions on the surface and (iii) linear reactions in the bulk and non-linear reactions on the surface. In all cases, the systems are non-dimensionalised and rigorous linear stability analysis is carried out to determine the necessary and sufficient conditions for pattern formation. Appropriate parameter spaces are generated from which model parameters are selected. To exhibit pattern formation, a coupled bulk-surface finite element method is developed and implemented. We implement the numerical algorithm by using an open source software package known as deal.II and show computational results on spherical and cuboid domains. Theoretical predictions of the linear stability analysis are verified and supported by numerical simulations. The results show that non-linear reactions in the bulk and surface generate patterns everywhere, while non-linear reactions in the bulk and linear reactions on the surface generate patterns in the bulk and on the surface with a pattern-less thin boundary layer. However, linear reactions in the bulk do not generate patterns on the surface even when the surface reactions are non-linear. The generality, robustness and applicability of our theoretical computational framework for coupled system of bulk-surface reaction-diffusion equations set premises to study experimentally driven models where coupling of bulk and surface chemical species is prevalent. Examples of such applications include cell motility, pattern formation in developmental biology, material science and cancer biology.

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The spine of an object is an entity that can characterise the object¿s topology and describes the object by a lower dimension. It has an intuitive appeal for supporting geometric modelling operations. The aim of this paper is to show how a spine for a PDE surface can be generated. For the purpose of the work presented here an analytic solution form for the chosen PDE is utilised. It is shown that the spine of the PDE surface is then computed as a by-product of this analytic solution. This paper also discusses how the of a PDE surface can be used to manipulate the shape. The solution technique adopted here caters for periodic surfaces with general boundary conditions allowing the possibility of the spine based shape manipulation for a wide variety of free-form PDE surface shapes.

Curves and surfaces are manifolds that can be represented using implicit and parametric methods. With a representation in hand, one can define a partial differential equation on the manifold using differential tangential calculus. The solution of these PDEs is quite interesting because they have many applications in a variety of areas including fluid dynamics, solid mechanics, biology and image processing.In this thesis, we examine two numerical methods for the solution of PDEs on manifolds: a so called cut finite element method and isogeometric analysis. We review the theoretical framework of the two methods and implement them to solve example problems in two and three dimensions: the Laplace-Beltrami problem, the Laplace-Beltrami eigenvalue problem, the biharmonic problem and the time-dependent advection diffusion problem. We compare the methods and we confirm that the numerical results agree with the exact solutions and that they obey the theoretical a priori error estimates.

This paper presents a method for interactive design by means of extending the PDE based approach for surface generation. The governing partial differential equation is generalized to arbitrary order allowing complex shapes to be designed as single patch PDE surfaces. Using this technique a designer has the flexibility of creating and manipulating the geometry of shape that satisfying an arbitrary set of boundary conditions. Both the boundary conditions which are defined as curves in 3-space and the spine of the corresponding PDE are utilized as interactive design tools for creating and manipulating geometry intuitively. In order to facilitate interactive design in real time, a compact analytic solution for the chosen arbitrary order PDE is formulated. This solution scheme even in the case of general boundary conditions satisfies exactly the boundary conditions where the resulting surface has an closed form representation allowing real time shape manipulation. In order to enable users to appreciate the powerful shape design and manipulation capability of the method, we present a set of practical examples.

We present an efficient method for reconstructing complex geometry using an elliptic Partial Differential Equation (PDE) formulation. The integral part of this work is the use of three-dimensional curves within the physical space which act as boundary conditions to solve the PDE. The chosen PDE is solved explicitly for a given general set of curves representing the original shape and thus making the method very efficient. In order to improve the quality of results for shape representation we utilize an automatic parameterization scheme on the chosen curves. With this formulation we discuss our methodology for shape representation using a series of practical examples.

This PhD thesis collects different experimental studies in the field of wetting phenomena and open microfluidics, which analyze the behavior of liquid drops on free open surfaces. The main goal of such a research is to develop smart coatings featuring useful wetting properties (e. g. water repellent, antifogging and antireflection materials) or techniques aimed at manipulating droplets for chemical or biological applications. In particular this work considers both passive and active methods to control the statics and dynamics of drops deposited on an inclined plane and consequently subject to an external constant force, the gravity force. Among the passive techniques based on surface patterning, we investigated the adhesion properties of multiscale nano- and microstructured hairy surfaces made of polymers having different elasticity. Also, chemically patterned surfaces, formed by hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions of different shape (stripes, squares and triangles), have found to be an effective tool to passively tune drop sliding velocity. Chemically heterogeneous surfaces can affect not only sliding velocity, but also drop trajectory. To further investigate the deviation of a drop by means of a chemical pattern we considered a sample formed by only two regions featuring different wettability, i. e. a chemical step characterized by a linear interface. On the other hand, an active manipulation implies the application of an external field, as, for instance, electric, magnetic or acoustic. As active technique we considered asymmetric vibrations of the substrate, able to induce interesting and surprising dynamical behaviors: small droplets placed on a vertically oscillating inclined plane can stay pinned, slide down, but even climb up the surface against gravity. Even if the vast majority of our experiments involves ordinary liquids, in particular water and aqueous solutions, our research about sliding includes also the study of complex fluids, more precisely polymer solutions, exhibiting rheological properties (e. g. viscosity and elastic behaviors) depending on the applied stress.
Questa tesi raccoglie una serie di lavori sperimentali che si collocano nell'ambito della microfluidica aperta e dei fenomeni interfacciali di bagnamento e fondamentalmente studiano il comportamento di gocce depositate su superfici. Lo scopo principale di questo tipo di ricerca è lo sviluppo di superfici che presentino proprietà particolari, come ad esempio superfici autopulenti, antinebbia o antiriflesso, o di tecniche di manipolazione di gocce finalizzate ad applicazioni nel campo biologico o chimico. In particolare questo lavoro considera metodi attivi e passivi atti a controllare sia la statica che la dinamica di gocce poste su superfici inclinate e quindi soggette ad una forza esterna costante, la forza di gravità. Tra le tecniche passive basate sull'utilizzo di superfici strutturate sono state studiate le proprietà di adesione di superfici polimeriche geometricamente nano/microstrutturate. Inoltre, campioni chimicamente eterogenei formati da regioni idrofiliche e idrofobiche di geometria diversa (strisce, quadrati, triangoli) si sono dimostrati uno strumento efficace per la regolazione passiva della velocità di scivolamento delle gocce. Questo tipo di superfici può influire non solo sulla velocità, ma anche sulla traiettoria della goccia. Per analizzare più nel dettaglio come si può deviare una goccia è stato studiato lo scivolamento su una superficie formata da due sole regioni di diversa bagnabilità, cioè una sorta di gradino chimico. D'altra parte, un controllo attivo implica l'applicazione di un campo esterno, ad esempio elettrico, magnetico o acustico. Come tecnica attiva in questa tesi è stata considerata l'applicazione di vibrazioni asimmetriche del substrato, capaci di indurre comportamenti dinamici interessanti e sorprendenti: piccole goccioline poste su un piano inclinato che oscilla verticalmente possono non solo rimanere ferme o scivolare, ma addirittura risalire contro la forza di gravità. Anche se la maggioranza di questi esperimenti riguarda liquidi ordinari, in particolare acqua e soluzioni acquose, una parte della ricerca è stata dedicata allo scivolamento di fluidi complessi, più precisamente soluzioni polimeriche, caratterizzati da proprietà reologiche (ad esempio viscosità o effetti elastici) che dipendono dallo sforzo applicato sul fluido.

The aim of this paper is to show how the spine of a PDE surface can be generated and how it can be used to efficiently parameterise a PDE surface. For the purpose of the work presented here an approximate analytic solution form for the chosen PDE is utilised. It is shown that the spine of the PDE surface is then computed as a by-product of this analytic solution. Furthermore, it is shown that a parameterisation can be introduced on the spine enabling intuitive manipulation of PDE surfaces.