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Direct imaging of polymer filaments pulled from rebounding drops
Zi Qiang Yang1, Peng Zhang2, Meng Shi1
1Division of Physical Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. sigurdur.thoroddsen@kaust.edu.sa.
Soft Matter
|June 29, 2022
Summary
Researchers developed a simple method to create polymer fibers by impacting polymer drops onto inclined superhydrophobic surfaces. This technique fabricates thin polymer filaments for applications in tissue engineering and molecular machines.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Biophysics
- Polymer Science
Background:
- Polymer filaments are fundamental to biological structures and processes.
- Fabrication of polymer fibers is crucial for tissue engineering and molecular machines.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present a simple method for depositing stretched polymer fibers between micro-pillars.
- To characterize filament formation by varying experimental parameters.
Main Methods:
- Polymeric drop impact and rebound on inclined superhydrophobic surfaces.
- High-speed microscale video analysis.
- Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Raman Spectroscopy.
Main Results:
- Successful deposition of stretched polymer fibers between micro-pillars.
- Filament formation is dependent on impact velocity, substrate, inclination angle, and polymer concentration.
- Impacts on plant leaves or nano-structured surfaces resulted in branched structures.
- SEM revealed thinner filament bundles compared to other methods.
- Raman spectroscopy confirmed native mode B stretched DNA filaments.
Conclusions:
- The described method offers a novel approach for fabricating polymer microfibers.
- This technique has potential applications in micro- and nanofabrication for biological and engineering purposes.
