EAGER/Collaborative Research: Programmed Stimuli-responsive Mesoscale Polymers Inspired by Worm Blobs as Emergent Super-Materials

EARLY概念探索性研究补助金（EAGER）将支持旨在开发由刺激响应细丝组成的新型材料的基础研究。这些材料的长期期望行为受到1厘米长的加州黑蠕虫（Lumbriculus variegatus，环节动物：Clitellata：Lumbriculidae）行为的启发，这是一种迷人的生物体，可以集体自组装形成功能性蠕虫斑点。 三维的，柔软的，纠结的斑点表现为一个活的材料，通过动态变换的斑点的形态，对环境应力作出反应。这个EAGER项目的具体目标有两个方面：对活蠕虫进行生物物理实验和数学分析，并在聚合物溶液中合成柔软，灵活，类似生物的结构。生物和合成系统的行为将在单个细丝、成对的扭曲细丝和相互作用的结构集合的水平上进行研究。了解这些类型的细丝的性质和运动对创造新材料、柔性机器人和预先编程的物体具有直接意义，这些物体可以响应外部刺激（如光、热或化学试剂）来执行有用的功能。 研究团队将包括来自不同学科和代表性不足的群体的学生，从而为项目增加强大的教育影响，并丰富其社会和人类影响。这个EAGER项目将在聚合物溶液中合成蠕虫启发的预编程丝状结构，这些结构能够以触发方式展示缠结和解开动力学。 虽然物理上纠缠的类顺磁性结构在分子和宏观尺度上都非常有趣，但中间尺寸的结构（称为中尺度）的相互作用还没有得到很好的理解。该项目旨在确定化学，架构和最有用的刺激，使集体系统的中尺度聚合物（MSP）容易缠结和解开命令。研究小组已经证明了丝状MSP的基本节段驱动。然而，实现复杂的打结和解开集体丝状结构仍然是一个挑战。在这里，手性，扭曲，编织介观聚合物结构将使用光化学和流体诱导的方法合成。这些努力将以生命系统中打结和解开机制的基础研究为指导。这些努力共同带来了材料合成的飞跃，同时揭示了复杂交互丝状结构合成设计的新基础能力。该奖项反映了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。

This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) grant will support fundamental research aimed at developing novel materials composed of stimuli-responsive filaments. The long-term desired behavior of these materials is inspired by the behavior of 1-cm-long California blackworms (Lumbriculus variegatus, Annelida: Clitellata: Lumbriculidae), a fascinating organism that collectively self-assembles to form functional worm blobs. The three-dimensional, soft, and tangled blob behaves as a living material that responds to environmental stresses through dynamic transformations of the blob’s morphology. The specific goals of this EAGER project are two-fold: to conduct biophysical experiments and mathematical analysis on living worms, and to synthesize soft, flexible, filament-like structures in polymer solutions. The behavior of both biological and synthetic systems will be studied at the level of individual filaments, pairs of twisted filaments, and collections of interacting structures. Understanding the properties and movements of these types of filaments has direct implications for creating novel materials, flexible robots, and objects that are pre-programmed to perform useful functions in response to external stimuli such as light, heat, or chemical reagents. The research team will include students from diverse disciplines and under-represented groups, thus adding powerful educational impact to the project and enriching its societal and human impact. This EAGER project will synthesize worm-inspired pre-programmed filamentous structures in polymer solutions capable of exhibiting tangling and untangling dynamics in a triggered fashion. While physically entangled filament-like structures are of great interest at both the molecular and macroscopic size scales, the interactions of structures of intermediate size, termed mesoscale, are not well understood. This project seeks to identify the chemistry, architectures, and most useful stimuli that enable collective systems of mesoscale polymers (MSPs) to readily tangle and untangle on command. Rudimentary segmental actuation of filamentous MSPs has been demonstrated by the research team. However, achieving intricate knotting and unknotting of collective filamentous structures remains a challenge. Here, chiral, twisting, and braiding mesoscale polymer structures will be synthesized using photochemical and fluid-induced methods. These efforts will be guided by fundamental research on the mechanics of knotting and unknotting in the living system. Together, these efforts could bring on a leap in materials synthesis while uncovering new foundational capabilities in the synthetic design of complex interacting filamentous structures.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.