Surfaces and transport in functional nanofibrous structures

纳米纤维在化学或生物防御、伤口护理和组织工程等高级应用中显示出前景。设计和评价生物医用纳米纤维的一个关键方面与它们的表面和传输特性有关。例如，组织工程支架设计的三个重要标准已被确定为：1)修饰支架表面以促进细胞粘附和生长；2)生物分子从支架中可控释放；3)支架质量输运。纳米纤维材料的弯曲结构使其研究比固体或扁平材料更具挑战性。因此，本研究的长期目标是表征纳米纤维材料和生物膜的结构、表面特性和传输特性之间的关系。短期目标是开发和表征多功能纳米纤维，表征功能纳米纤维材料的表面/界面特性，研究纳米纤维结构在生物医学应用中可能发生的多尺度传输现象。

Nanofibres show promise in such advanced applications as chemical or bio-defense, wound care and tissue engineering. A critical aspect for the design and evaluation of biomedical nanofibres is related to their surface and transport properties. For example, three important criteria in the design of tissue engineering scaffolds have been identified as 1) modification of scaffold surfaces to promote cell adherence and growth; 2) controlled release of bio-molecules from the scaffolds; and 3) scaffold mass transport. The tortuous structure of nanofibrous materials has made studies more challenging than solid or flat materials. Therefore, the long-term objective of the proposed research is to characterize the relationship between the structures, surface properties, and the transport properties of nanofibrous materials and biomembranes. The short term objectives are to develop and characterize multifunctional nanofibres, to characterize surface/interface properties of functional nanofibrous materials, and to study the multi-scale transport phenomena that may occur in biomedical applications of nanofibrous structures.