Development of Hierarchical Micro/Nano Structured Multi-Responsive Surfaces for Microfluid Applications

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Recent advances in stimuli-responsive coatings enable their integration as functional elements in nanotechnologies such as microfluidics, Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) where interfacial forces strongly influence the device performance because of the large surface-to-volume ratio. However, responsive coatings are suffering from major shortcomings: (i) lack of responsiveness rapidity, selectivity and reversibility, (ii) poor environmental stability, (iii) limited understanding of the structure–function relationship, which are all critical to design reliable rules for building multifunctional surfaces. Using approaches from surface chemistry, polymer sciences and self-assembly, the proposed program aims to overcome these limitations by developing and investigating a new generation of responsive hierarchical micro/nano-structured coatings whose physical properties (structure and mechanical properties) and surface chemistry can be tuned independently and reversibly using different external stimuli (light, temperature, pH, ionic strength).