DEVELOPMENT OF SIMPLE AND VERSATILE FABRICATION TECHNIQUE TO PATTERN CONDUCTING POLYMER FILMS FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS
Open Access
- Author:
- Park, Soohyun
- Graduate Program:
- Bioengineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- August 25, 2015
- Committee Members:
- Dr Sheereen Majd, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
William O Hancock, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Mohammad Reza Abidian, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Siyang Zheng, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- Conducting Polymer
Microfabrication
Hydrogel - Abstract:
- Conducting polymers (CPs) are easy to process and have tunable physical and chemical properties including conductivity, volume, color, and hydrophobicity. Therefore, these organic polymers are attractive in a broad spectrum of biomedical applications ranging from implentable electornics, and biosensing to tissue engineering and drug delivery. Patterning CP films, particularly with various surface chemistries, provide excellent platforms for biosensing and cell engineering. In this study, we developed a unique and verstaile method for direct patterning of CP films on substrates. This technique employs an agarose hydrogel stamp as a carrier of polymer precursor solution including monomers and dopants. Upon placement of the stamp on an electrode and subsequent application of a current, the polymerization of monomer only occurred in the contact areas between the topographically-patterned hydrogel and the gold substrate. This hydrogel-mediated electropolymerization technique was able to generate positive patterns of CP films with different sizes and geometries in a single-step and solution-free process. Further, the posts on a hydrogel stamp could deliver different monomer/dopant combinations to create a patterned CP film with different and addressable surface chemistries in a parallel fashion. More importantly, the incorporation of the fragile biomolecule in the polymer network could be achieved in one-step process. Extending the scope of this technique, we generated a CP film with molecular gradient to be applied for cellular studies where cell behaviors could be controlled by the gradient of biomarkers on the surface. Also, the transfer of the patterned CP films onto transparent, elastic, and non-conductive substrate was attempted for the potential applications in flexible and wearable electronics. Together, we believe that the proposed technique has great potential for sophisticated patterning of CP films with concise and direct protocols, and that the technique has great advantages over other conventional lithographic techniques for its simplicity and efficiency.