Development of functional surfaces on metallic materials via design of (bio)molecular and metal oxide surface layers

功能材料/表面在当今世界中发挥着重要作用，从简单的消费品，如抗菌表面（例如绷带）到能源生产（例如光阳极）再到医疗应用（例如药物洗脱冠状动脉支架）。尽管在设计新设备/器械时需要考虑散装材料的特性，但在许多情况下，材料（即器械）的实际功能主要取决于其表面与周围环境的相互作用。因此，表面的功能化以实现特定的性能对于许多新技术的开发具有重要意义。这一直是并将继续是我的研究计划的重点。 在这项资助申请中提出的研究计划探索了功能表面设计的新方法。它将侧重于（i）在模型和商业上设计新的（生物）分子和金属氧化物功能单层/涂层（工业）特殊应用的金属/合金表面（例如冠状动脉支架、神经刺激和感测电极、骨/牙植入物、电化学辅助药物释放系统），以及（ii）确定物理化学，表面的形态学和地形学性质及其与各种环境（蛋白质、细胞、细菌、腐蚀性电解质和各种（生物）有机分子）的相互作用。 虽然目标（i）具有直接的实际意义，但通过实现目标（ii）获得的知识将使我们能够理解各种表面物理化学性质（例如电荷，润湿性，化学成分和反应性），形貌，薄表面膜的结构及其电子/介电和形态学性质如何控制材料表面与周围环境的相互作用。这将反过来使我们和其他研究人员能够根据分子/纳米水平的现象而不是经验方法来设计各种应用的表面。

Functional materials/surfaces play a major role in today's world, ranging from simple consumer products, such as anti-bacterial surfaces (e.g. bandages) to energy production (e.g. photoanodes) to medical applications (e.g. drug-eluting coronary stents). Although bulk-material properties need to be considered when designing new equipment/devices, the actual functionality of the material (i.e. the device), in many cases depends predominantly on the interaction of its surface with the surrounding environment. Thus, functionalization of surfaces to achieve specific properties is of major importance for the development of many new technologies. This has been and continues to be the focus of my research program. The research program proposed in this grant application explores novel approaches for the design of functional surfaces. It will focus on (i) the design of new (bio)molecular and metal-oxide functional monolayers/coatings on model and commercial (industrial) metal/alloy surfaces for specific applications (e.g. coronary stents, neural stimulating and sensing electrodes, bone/dental implants, electrochemically-assisted drug-release systems), and on (ii) the determination of fundamental relationships between physicochemical, morphological and topographical properties of surfaces and their interaction with various environments (proteins, cells, bacteria, corrosive electrolytes and various (bio)organic molecules). While objective (i) is of direct practical significance, the knowledge gained by achieving objective (ii) will enable us to understand how various surface physicochemical properties (e.g. charge, wettability, chemical composition and reactivity), topography, structure of thin surface films and their electronic/dielectric and morphological properties control the interaction of the material's surface with its surroundings. This will, in turn, enable us and other researchers to base the design of surfaces for various applications on phenomena at the molecular/nano-level, rather than on empirical methods.