Adhesion and Permeation in Adhesive Nanofibrous Materials

纳米纤维材料具有高孔隙率和超高表面积体积比的独特特征，这使得它们能够用于各种各样的应用，包括高吸收材料、过滤膜、化学或生物保护装置、支撑智能材料的膜和用于组织工程的支架。纳米纤维材料的功能化可以进一步提高其性能。在拟议的研究中，我们将开发和表征在干燥和/或潮湿环境中具有出色粘合性能的纳米纤维。由海洋贻贝分泌的粘附蛋白的强结合特性在过去十年中激发了大量的工作来工程化材料表面以赋予优异的粘附特性。贻贝启发的聚多巴胺基材料已被用于功能化各种材料表面。 与其他类型的材料相比，纳米纤维材料的优点在于它们提供了具有柔韧性和良好机械强度以及高孔隙率和表面积的独特结构。另一方面，纳米纤维材料的曲折结构使得研究比固体和扁平材料更具挑战性。因此，拟议研究的长期目标是表征纳米纤维材料的结构、表面性质和传输性质之间的关系。短期目标是：1）开发具有优异粘合性能的功能性纳米纤维膜，2）表征纳米纤维材料的形态、结构和粘合性能，以及3）研究纳米纤维结构中的多尺度传输及其对纳米纤维材料粘合性能稳定性的影响。 拟议的研究将涉及五名研究生（三名硕士和两名博士）的培训。学生将获得生物材料开发，表征和计算机建模方面的技能。他们还将通过跨学科的工作提高他们在演讲，科学写作，解决问题和团队合作方面的技能。 这项研究将为功能纳米纤维材料的表面和传输现象的研究开发一种新的多尺度方法。拟议研究的结果将为开发新的纳米纤维材料提供基础，以满足先进应用的新兴需求，包括过滤/分离，伤口护理和组织再生。拟议的研究将带来商业和经济利益：通过开发高附加值产品，该省和加拿大的纺织品和材料工业将提高其竞争力，增加其在生物医学和技术部门纺织品市场的比例，为该国的经济增长和创造就业机会做出贡献。

Nanofibrous materials have unique features of high porosity and ultra-high surface-to-volume ratio, which allow them to be used in a wide variety of applications, including highly absorptive materials, filtration membranes, chemically or biologically protective devices, membranes supporting smart materials, and scaffold for tissue engineering. Functionalization of nanofibrous materials can further enhance their performance. In the proposed research, we will develop and characterize nanofibres with outstanding adhesive properties in a dry and/or a wet environment. The strong binding properties of the adhesive protein secreted by marine mussels have inspired tremendous work in the last decade to engineer material surfaces to endow excellent adhesive properties. Mussel-inspired polydopamine-based materials have been used to functionalize various material surfaces. The advantages of nanofibrous materials, as compared to other types of materials, are that they provide a unique structure with flexibility yet good mechanical strength, as well as high porosity and surface areas. The tortuous structure of nanofibrous materials, on the other hand, makes the studies even more challenging than solid and 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. The short term objectives are 1) to develop functional nanofibrous membranes with excellent adhesive properties, 2) to characterize the morphology, structure and adhesive properties of the nanofibrous materials, and 3) to study the multi-scale transport in nanofibrous structures and its impact on the stability of the adhesive properties of nanofibrous materials. The proposed research will involve the training of five graduate (three MSc and two PhD) students. The students are expected to gain skills in biomaterials development, characterization and computer modeling. They will also improve their skills in presentation, scientific writing, problem solving and teamwork through the interdisciplinary work. The proposed research will develop a novel multi-scale approach for the studies of surface and transport phenomena in functional nanofibrous materials. The results of the proposed research will provide groundwork in the development of new nanofibrous materials to meet emerging needs in advanced applications, including filtration/separation, wound care and tissue regenerations. The proposed studies will lead to commercial and economic benefits: by developing high value-added products; the provincial and Canadian textile and material industry will enhance its competitiveness and increase its proportion of the textile market in biomedical and technical sectors, contributing to the country’s economic growth and job creation.