EAGER: Exploring Deformation, Instability, and Failure in Soft Living Materials

典型的工程材料和结构不会生长，自我修复，捕获碳，吸收或检测环境中的毒素。 工程活材料由分散在合成聚合物基质中的活细胞和/或生物体组成，并且具有实现生物系统中高度期望的特性的潜力。 为了使生物材料能够充分发挥其作为可行和强大的工程结构的能力，需要机械框架来深入了解我们如何设计和控制这些材料和结构的组成和结构以供实际使用。EARLY概念探索性研究资助（EAGER）项目将建立对工程生物材料变形和失效行为的基本理解，重点是藻类负载水凝胶。这些水凝胶涉及藻类的光合作用活性，其可以用于氧化、碳捕获、毒素传感和能量收集。 关于这些新的工程生物材料的力学知识的进步可以加速它们作为化石燃料聚合物和塑料的生态友好替代品和替代品的使用和采用，这将具有重大的环境，生态和社会效益。该项目将创建一个新的多场连续介质力学模型，适合计算实现，以描述工程生物材料的变形和生长。 具体来说，该项目将建立一个化学力学模型的增长，将耦合到一个有限的弹性框架。 该项目还将建立一个新的实验力学平台，首次将不同水凝胶组合物中藻类的形态和结构重塑可视化并联系起来，以及随后对压缩，拉伸和缩进下整体机械行为的影响。 PI计划开展两项主要的影响更广泛的活动。首先，为了让公众更广泛地参与进来，我们将通过制作6个关于气候变化和材料的短片（一分钟）来分享我们科学探索背后的动机和想法：什么是联系，为什么我们应该关心？ 内容将与学生共同制作，作为将社会和环境责任融入材料和结构力学的一部分。 第二个更广泛的影响目标是开发一系列关于气候危机和工程的六个开放获取会谈。 为了开发这个系列，PI将在社会科学和工程学的界面上进行创新。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Typical engineering materials and structures do not grow, self-heal, trap carbon, oxygenate, or detect toxins in the environment. Engineered living materials consist of living cells and or organisms dispersed in a synthetic polymer matrix and have the potential to realize highly-desired properties found in biological systems. To enable the full capacity of living materials as viable and robust engineering structures, mechanistic frameworks are needed to provide deep insights into how we can design and control the composition and architecture of these materials and structures for practical uses. This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project will establish a foundational understanding of the deformation and failure behavior of engineered living materials that focuses on algae-laden hydrogels. These hydrogels involve the photosynthetic activity of the algae which can be harnessed for oxygenation, carbon trapping, toxin sensing, and energy harvesting. Advances in mechanics knowledge about these new engineered living materials could accelerate their use and adoption as ecofriendly alternatives and replacements of fossil-fuel-based polymers and plastics, which would be of significant environmental, ecological, and societal benefit. The project will create a new multi-field continuum mechanics model amenable to computational implementation to describe the deformation and growth of engineered living materials. Specifically, the project will establish a chemo-mechanical model of growth that will couple into a finite elasticity framework. The project will also establish a novel experimental mechanics platform that for the first time will visualize and link the morphological and structural remodeling of algae within varying hydrogel compositions and the subsequent effects on the overall mechanical behavior under compression, tension, and indention. The PI has two main broader impact activities planned. Firstly, to engage the public more broadly, we will share the motivation and ideas behind our scientific exploration through the development of 6 short (one minute) videos on Climate Change and Materials: What’s the Link and Why Should We Care? The content will be co-produced with students as part of integrating social and environmental responsibility into mechanics of materials and structures. The second broader impact goal is to develop a series of six open access talks on the Climate Crisis and Engineering. To develop this series, the PI will innovate at the interface of social science and engineering.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.