Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 6, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7566
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences [DE-FG02-07ER46471]
- Center for Microanalysis of Materials at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- NSF [CMMI-1400169]
- National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) - Ministry of Education [D00008]
- Samsung Display Co.
- National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) - Ministry of Science [K20704000003TA050000310]
- Div Of Civil, Mechanical, & Manufact Inn
- Directorate For Engineering [1400169] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Hard and soft structural composites found in biology provide inspiration for the design of advanced synthetic materials. Many examples of bio-inspired hard materials can be found in the literature; far less attention has been devoted to soft systems. Here we introduce deterministic routes to low-modulus thin film materials with stress/strain responses that can be tailored precisely to match the non-linear properties of biological tissues, with application opportunities that range from soft biomedical devices to constructs for tissue engineering. The approach combines a low-modulus matrix with an open, stretchable network as a structural reinforcement that can yield classes of composites with a wide range of desired mechanical responses, including anisotropic, spatially heterogeneous, hierarchical and self-similar designs. Demonstrative application examples in thin, skin-mounted electrophysiological sensors with mechanics precisely matched to the human epidermis and in soft, hydrogel-based vehicles for triggered drug release suggest their broad potential uses in biomedical devices.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available