عنوان

Mechanical, Biological and Electrochemical Investigations of Advanced Micro/Nano Materials for Tissue Engineering and Energy Storage

Number

TL65b5q43k

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

Mechanical, Biological and Electrochemical Investigations of Advanced Micro/Nano Materials for Tissue Engineering and Energy Storage

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Pu, Juan

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

Komvopoulos, Kyriakos

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2016

Body granting the degree

Komvopoulos, Kyriakos

Text preceding or following the note

2016

Text of Note

Various micro/nano materials have been extensively studied for applications in tissue engineering and energy storage. Tissue engineering seeks to repair or replace damaged tissue by integrating approaches from cellular/molecular biology and material chemistry/engineering. A major challenge is the consistent design of three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds that mimic the structure and biological functions of extracellular matrix (ECM), guide cell migration, provide mechanical support, and regulate cell activity. Electrospun micro/nanofibers have been investigated as promising tissue engineering scaffolds because they resemble native ECM and possess tunable surface morphologies. Supercapacitors, one of the energy storage devices, bridge the performance gap between rechargeable batteries and conventional capacitors. Active electrode materials of supercapacitors must possess high specific surface area, high conductivity, and good electrochemical properties. Carbon-based micro/nano-particles, such as graphene, activated carbon (AC), and carbon nanotubes, are commonly used as active electrode materials for storing charge in supercapacitors by the electrical double layer mechanism due to their high specific surface area and excellent conductivity. In this thesis, the mechanical properties of electrospun bilayer microfibrous membranes were investigated for potential applications in tissue engineering. Bilayer microfibrous membranes of poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) were fabricated by electrospinning using a parallel-disk mandrel configuration, which resulted in the sequential deposition of a layer with aligned fibers (AFL) across the two parallel disks and a layer with random fibers (RFL), both deposited by a single process step. The membrane structure and fiber alignment were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and two-dimensional fast Fourier transform. Because of the intricacies of the generated electric field, the bilayer membranes exhibited higher porosity than the membranes fabricated with a single drum collector. However, despite their higher porosity, the bilayer membranes exhibited generally higher elastic modulus, yield strength, and toughness than single-layer membranes consisting of random fibers. Bilayer deformation at relatively high strain rates comprised multiple abrupt microfracture events comprising discontinuous fiber breakage. Bilayer membrane elongation yielded excessive necking of the RFL and remarkable fiber stretching (on the order of 400%) of the AFL. In both layers, however, the fibers exhibited multiple localized necking, attributed to the nonuniform distribution of crystalline phases in the fibrillar structure. The high membrane porosity and good mechanical properties of the electrospun bilayer membranes and good biocompatibility and biodegradability of PLLA demonstrated in this work make these bilayer membranes good scaffold candidates for various tissue engineering applications. Furthermore, the bilayer PLLA scaffolds showed gradual variation in through-thickness porosity and fiber alignment and an average porosity much higher than that of conventionally electrospun scaffolds (controls) with randomly distributed fibers. The biocompatibility and biological performance of the bilayer fibrous scaffolds was evaluated by in vivo experiments involving subcutaneous scaffold implantation in Sprague-Dawley rats, followed by histology and immunohistochemistry studies. The results illustrate the potential of bilayer scaffolds to overcome major limitations of conventionally electrospun scaffolds associated with intrinsically small pores, low porosity and, consequently, poor cell infiltration. The significantly higher porosity and larger pore size of the RFL enhanced cell motility through the scaffold thickness, whereas the relatively dense structure of the AFL provided adequate mechanical strength. The bilayer scaffolds showed more than two times higher cell infiltration than controls during implantation in vivo. Moreover, the unique structure of bilayer scaffolds promoted collagen fiber deposition, cell proliferation, and ingrowth of smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells in vivo. The results of this work reveal the high potential of the fabricated bilayer fibrous scaffolds for tissue engineering and regeneration. Novel all-solid-state microsupercapacitors (MSCs) with 3D electrodes consisting of active materials (i.e., graphene or AC particles) and a polymer electrolyte (PE) designed for high- energy-density storage applications were fabricated and tested. The incorporation of a PE in the electrode material enhanced the accessibility of the surface of active materials by electrolyte ions and decreased the ion diffusion path during electrochemical charging/discharging. For a scan rate of 5 mV s -1 , the MSCs with graphene/PE and AC/PE composite electrodes demonstrated a very high areal capacitance of 95 and 134 mF cm -2 , respectively, comparable with that of 3D MSCs having a liquid electrolyte. In addition, the graphene/PE MSCs showed ~70% increase in specific capacitance after 10,000 charge/discharge cycles, attributed to an electro-activation process resulting from ion intercalation between the graphene nanosheets. The AC/PE MSCs also demonstrated excellent stability. The obtained results illustrate the suitability of the present 3D MSCs for various high-density solid-state energy storage applications. Single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) networks were deposited on an ultrathin polyimide substrate using the spray-deposition technique and patterned into interdigital electrodes to construct ultrahigh-power, extremely flexible, and foldable MSCs capable of operating at an ultrahigh scan rate (up to 1000 V s -1 ) and delivering a stack capacitance of 18 F cm -3 and an energy density of 1.6 mWh cm -3 , which is comparable with that of lithium thin-film batteries. An ultrahigh power density of 1125 W cm -3 and extremely small time constant of 1 ms were obtained with SWCNT MSCs, comparable with aluminum electrolytic capacitors. The present MSCs showed superior electrochemical stability, with 96% capacity retention after 100,000 cycles. Furthermore, these microdevices could be reversibly and elastically bent, folded, and rolled without undergoing significant performance degradation. The developed SWCNT MSCs demonstrate high potential for integration in flexible and wearable electronic systems for high-rate energy storage or ac line filtering. A honeycomb polydimethylsiloxane substrate was introduced for stretchable MSC arrays based on SWNCT interdigital electrodes, which enables facile integration in flexible or wearable electronics. The honeycomb structure accommodates large deformation without generating large strains in the MSCs and interconnects. The results show that such stretchable MSC arrays with SWCNT electrodes demonstrate excellent rate capability and power performance as well as electrochemical stability up to 150% (zero prestrain) or 275% (-50% prestrain) stretching and under excessive bending or twisting. The present stretchable MSC arrays with honeycomb structures show high potential for integration with other electronics, such as energy harvesters, power management circuits, wireless charging circuits, and various sensors, encompassing a wide range of wearable, bio-implantable electronic systems.

Mondol, Vanessa

Pu, Juan

UC Berkeley

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y