Materials World Network: Synthesis and Characterization of Molecular Building Blocks for Responsive Materials

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。克利夫兰州立大学（CSU）生物材料计划和材料研究部特别计划办公室颁发的材料世界网络计划奖旨在研究响应性水凝胶材料，这些材料可以在体积上表现出剧烈变化，并在微小的环境变化下产生力。CSU的Holland教授和德国慕尼黑工业大学的Hugel教授的这项合作将联合收割机美国在聚合物化学和蛋白质科学方面的专业知识以及德国在单分子操作和表面化学方面的专业知识。 这些响应材料，由温度，pH值，光，或其他溶液性质的刺激，可以作为生物材料，药物输送装置，并在微流体装置中的应用。电流响应性水凝胶的主要限制是它们的响应时间慢和体积变化小。这项合作的目的是通过开发分子尺度的反应亚基来克服这些限制。 这些分子构建块将仅由连接在一起的三条多肽链组成，并且将对其环境做出响应，而不会被并入更大的无序凝胶中。 由于它们有组织的折叠结构，预计这些材料的响应速度要快得多，并且比传统的响应性水凝胶显示出更大的尺寸减小百分比。 当这些组成部分连接起来形成更大的反应网络时，这些好处应该得到保留。这种多学科合作的结果将是开发新型响应材料，这些材料可以转化为新的生物医学应用和纳米科学，例如光学驱动分子马达，用于控制释放的快速响应水凝胶和定向响应纤维。 它们更快、更大的响应将为发现和开发响应材料的新用途开辟道路。该研究旨在整合各级教育-从介绍高中生到支持博士研究。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)This Materials World Network program award by the Biomaterials program and Office of Special Programs in the Division of Materials Research to Cleveland State University (CSU) is to study responsive hydrogel materials that can exhibit drastic changes in their volume and generate force with small environmental changes. This collaborative effort by Prof. Holland at CSU and Prof. Hugel at Technical University Munich in Germany will combine the expertise in polymer chemistry and protein sciences in the US and the expertise in single molecule manipulation and surface chemistry in Germany. These responsive materials, stimulated by temperature, pH, light, or other solution property, could have applications as biomaterials, drug delivery devices, and in microfluidic devices. The major limitations of current responsive hydrogels are their slow response time and small volume changes. The objective of this collaboration is to overcome these limitations by developing molecular scale responsive subunits. These molecular building blocks will be composed of only three polypeptide chains linked together, and will respond to their environment without being incorporated in a larger disordered gel. Because of their organized folded structure, these materials are expected to respond much more quickly and exhibit a greater percent reduction in size than the traditional responsive hydrogels. These benefits should be retained when these building blocks are connected to form larger responsive networks. The results of this multidisciplinary collaboration will be in the development of novel responsive materials that can be translated to new biomedical applications, and nanoscience, such as optically driven molecular motors, fast response hydrogels for controlled release, and oriented responsive fibers. Their considerably faster and larger responses will open the path to discover and develop new uses for responsive materials. The research is designed to integrate education at all levels - from introducing high school students to research through supporting doctoral research.