I-Corps: Multi-functional nanostructures with directed irradiation synthesis for smart biomaterials

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是制造新型智能多功能纳米结构的变革性方法，通过提供绿色、廉价、快速和多功能的工艺来满足下一代先进材料的需求。这种纳米结构合成方法在生物技术、能源和工具等领域都有应用。例如，在医疗保健领域，美国每年有近100万人遭受与医疗植入物有关的感染。此外，由于组织整合不良，骨中的植入物在其生命周期中可能会松动，导致炎症和疼痛，可能需要额外的手术。这些问题可能通过合成固有的抗细菌生物材料表面来解决，从而增强生物组织的整合。这项技术的商业化有可能重新定义工业材料设计范例。这个i-Corps项目基于一种被称为定向辐射合成(DIS)和定向等离子体纳米合成(DPNS)的材料的等离子体处理形式。这项技术能够通过创建定制的纳米级形貌(孔、棒、锥体、波纹等)来改变材料表面的固有属性。和化学性质(化学计量、氧化态等)通过将表面暴露在受控的离子、电子和中性粒子的通量中，以及控制质量、动量和通量等条件。这使得通过在受离子诱导的侵蚀和表面扩散主导的辐照表面中使用自组织排列来逐个原子控制的保真度达到了一个新的水平。这项技术将改变纳米结构系统的合成和设计，利用与组成有关的机制来驱动微结构和纳米结构上的自组织，从而实现对其生物特性的可调谐和控制。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will be a transformative approach at fabricating novel smart multi-functional nanostructures that meet the needs of next generation advanced materials by providing a process that is green, cheap, fast, and versatile. This approach to nanostructure synthesis has applications in biotechnology, energy and tooling, among others. For example, in the healthcare field each year nearly one million people in the United States suffer from an infection related to medical implants. Additionally, implants in bone can loosen over their lifetime due to poor tissue integration, resulting in inflammation and pain, and possibly requiring additional surgeries. These issues can potentially be solved through the synthesis of inherently anti-bacterial biomaterial surfaces that enhance biological tissue integration. The commercialization of this technology has the potential to redefine industrial material design paradigms.This I-Corps project is based around a form of plasma processing of materials called Directed Irradiation Synthesis (DIS) and Directed Plasma Nanosynthesis (DPNS). This technology is able to change the inherent properties of a material surface by creating customized nanoscale topographies (pores, rods, cones, ripples, etc.) and chemistries (stoichiometry, oxidation state, etc.) by exposing the surface to a controlled flux of ions, electrons, and neutral particles with controlled mass, momentum, and fluence, among other conditions. This allows a new level of fidelity with atom-by-atom control using self-organized arrangement in irradiated surfaces that is dominated by ion-induced erosion and surface diffusion. This technology will transform the synthesis and design of nano-structured systems by leveraging the composition-dependent mechanisms that drive self-organization on micro- and nano-structures to enable tunability and control of their biological properties.