A Study of the Air-Water Interfacial Behavior of Biodegradable Polyesters: Toward Rational Design of a Polymeric Lung Surfactant

肺表面活性物质缺乏会导致一种叫做呼吸窘迫综合征的疾病。这种疾病的标准治疗方法是将动物提取的脂质表面活性剂注射到患者体内。的肺。然而，治疗非常昂贵，并且长期以来一直在寻找更可行的（合成）制剂。该提案将探测（使用光学微粘度计和微流变学技术）的分子起源的最小表面张力表现出有前途的生物降解聚酯（PLGA），表面压力-面积滞后行为在动态压缩膜，和PLGA单层的粘弹性。如果成功的话，这项研究的结果可能会对材料工程领域产生重要影响，扩大我们对材料特性和薄膜聚合物动力学的基本理解。

Deficiency of lung surfactant causes a disease called respiratory distress syndrome. The standard treatment of this disease involves an injection of animal-extracted, lipid-based surfactant formulation into the patient?s lung. However, the treatment if very expensive and there has been a long-standing search for a more viable (synthetic) formulation. This proposal will probe (using optical micro-viscosimetry and micro-rheology techniques) the molecular origins of the minimum surface tension exhibited by promising biodegradable polyesters (PLGA) , the surface pressure-area hysteresis behavior in dynamically compressed films, and the viscoelastic properties of PLGA monolayers. If successful, the results of this proposed research can have an important impact on the field of materials engineering, expanding our fundamental understanding of materials properties and dynamics of thin film polymers.