ᐊ P2-26
Open Readings 2021 • P2-27
P2-28 ᐅ

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF INNOVATIVE FUNCTIONAL NANOMEMBRANES IN BIOENGINEERING

Urtė Ciganė1, Arvydas Palevičius1

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Design, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania

[email protected]

Nanomembranes receive much attention due to their special properties [1, 2]. Nanomembrane is a structure with a thickness of 1-100 nm, while other dimensions can be the size of nano/micro/macro scale [3]. Mechanical strength is one of the key parameters that determine the application of nanomembrane in various fields [4].

However, many nanomembranes cannot be used in bioengineering because many nanomembranes do not have sufficient mechanical strength and biocompatibility [5]. It is known that mechanical strength depends on the porosity of the material. According to the porosity of nanomembranes, mechanical strength decreases exponentially with increasing porosity [6]. Moreover, the biocompatibility and toxicity of nanomembranes have not yet been fully investigated. It is important that nanomembranes would be similar to natural materials. It means that nanomembrane should be made of biocompatible materials, have well-ordered pores, and have the required mechanical strength. For example, many inorganic nanomembranes have good mechanical properties because their pores are well ordered, while the advantages of organic nanomembranes are relatively low cost and good biocompatibility [7].

A widely used electrochemical fabrication method is anodizing [8]. Anodizing can be used to develop an innovative nanomembrane. The main advantages of anodizing are an ordered pore structure, the ability to control the pore diameter, and relatively low production costs [9].

An analysis of the scientific literature has shown that there is a lot of research, but the best innovative functional nanomembranes have not yet been developed. It is therefore necessary to develop new technologies and expand the possibilities of nanomembranes applications. The innovative functional nanomembrane will be developed in several stages. Firstly, a new anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membrane fabrication technology with controlled nanopore arrays will be developed. Then, the created geometry will be transferred to a biomaterial that could be applied in bioengineering.

In the revealed case, there becomes a real possibility to create an innovative nanomembrane with the required mechanical strength and biocompatibility. The developed nanomembrane can be used not only in medical care for human health but also in areas such as biosensors used to detect biological/chemical threats or microchips used to test the toxicity of experimental drugs.

[1] Q. Guo, Z. Di, M. G. Lagally et al., Strain engineering and mechanical assembly of silicon/germanium nanomembranes, Materials Science and Engineering: R: Reports 128, 1-31 (2018).

[2] F. Ma, B. Xu, S. Wu et al., Thermal-controlled releasing and assembling of functional nanomembranes through polymer pyrolysis, Nanotechnology 30, 354001 (2019).

[3] G. Huang, Y. Mei, Assembly and Self-Assembly of Nanomembrane Materials-From 2D to 3D, Small 14, 1-23 (2018).

[4] B. B. Sharma, A. Parashar, Mechanical strength of a nanoporous bicrystalline h-BN nanomembrane in a water submerged state, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 22, 20453 (2020).

[5] C. R. Buhr, N. Wiesmann, R. C. Tanner et al., The Chorioallantoic Membrane Assay in Nanotoxicological Research-An Alternative for In Vivo Experimentation, Nanomaterials 10, 2328 (2020).

[6] P. N. Christy, S. K. Basha, V. S. Kumari et al., Biopolymeric nanocomposite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications-A review, Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology 55, 101452 (2020).

[7] S. Adiga, C. Jin, L. Curtiss et al., Nanoporous membranes for medical and biological applications, WIREs Nanomedicine and nanobiotechnology 1, 568-581 (2009).

[8] G. Absalan, S. Barzegar, M. Moradi et al., Fabricating Al2O3-nanopores array by an ultrahigh voltage two-step anodization technique: Investigating the effect of voltage rate and Al foil thickness on geometry and ordering of the array, Materials Chemistry and Physics 199, 265-271 (2017).

[9] Y. Patel, G. Janušas, A. Palevičius et al., Development of Nanoporous AAO Membrane for Nano Filtration Using the Acoustophoresis Method, Sensors 20, 3833 (2020).