Research Areas B and C
Cluster of Excellence livMatS @ FIT – Freiburg Center for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies
Hierarchically Programmable Materials with Propagating Stimulus Responsive Elements and Metamaterial Ultrastructuring
Project description As a member of the Cluster of Excellence livMatS my project has the following objectives. I will develop novel, bioinspired soft materials and thereof derived mechanical systems that are able to adapt autonomously to environmental changes, harvest energy from their surroundings or respond to external triggers. These adaptive soft macromolecular materials should be 2D and 3D structurable in high-resolution additive manufacturing. They should comprise behavior associated to learning, memory and oblivion. My major objective will be the development of adjustable novel protein-based stimulus-responsive soft materials that are biocompatible, durable and allow fine structuring (e.g. auxetic structures, compliant mechanisms) to fulfil the above mentioned purposes.
Project outcomes We recently developed protein polymers with adjustable responsivity to environmental properties executing motion triggered by pH change. Here we demonstrate a chemically fueled pH oscillation that drives motion of an artificial protein muscle that reveals learning- and oblivion-like behaviour. Moreover, actuation could be induced by electric current driven electrophoresis. Thus, we transform chemical gradients and electrical energy into movement of stimuli responsive protein materials. Mold casting, 3D additive manufacturing (e.g. MSLA, 2PP printing) enables fine structurization of these protein-polymers and conjugations to 3D printed synthetic polymers demonstrates the feasibility of macroscopic devices that are biocompatible and could be stimuli responsive.
Supervisor Dr. Stefan Schiller
Worked at livMats from August 2020 - July 2022
Current position As of August 2022, Postdoctroal researcher in the Schiller Lab at Goethe University Frankfurt.