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Polymers

Polymers

Polymers

Polymers

The word polymer is derived from the Greek words “poly” which means “many” and “mer” which means “parts”. Polymers are long chains of molecules composed of repeating units of smaller molecules, known as monomers. They either occur naturally, such as DNA and proteins, or can be constructed synthetically, like plastics. They have varied structural characteristics, such as linear chains, branched chains, or complex networks, that contribute to the...

Types of Step-Growth Polymers: Polyesters

Types of Step-Growth Polymers: Polyesters

The introduction of polyesters has brought major development to the textile industry. The wrinkle-free behavior of polyester blends has eliminated the need for starching and ironing clothes.
Polyesters are commonly prepared from terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol; the crude product is known as poly(ethylene terephthalate) or PET. However, polyesters are synthesized industrially by transesterification of dimethyl terephthalate with ethylene glycol at 150 °C. The two reactants and the polymer...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 11, 2026

Fabricating Reactive Surfaces with Brush-like and Crosslinked Films of Azlactone-Functionalized Block Co-Polymers

Fabricating Reactive Surfaces with Brush-like and Crosslinked Films of Azlactone-Functionalized Block Co-Polymers

Published on: June 30, 2018

Pollen-inspired biopolymer-based multifunctional films.

Seohan Yun¹, Taehoon Kim², Heeeun Choi¹

¹School of Materials Science and Engineering, Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Gumi, Gyeongbuk 39177, Republic of Korea.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|November 10, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers created multifunctional surfaces by combining sunflower pollen and silk fibroin films. This sustainable approach yields high-performance biomaterials with tunable properties for advanced applications.

Keywords:

bioinspiration micro/nanotexturing multifunctional film pollen silk fibroin

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Biomaterials Engineering
Sustainable Manufacturing

Background:

Nature-inspired designs are crucial for developing advanced, sustainable materials.
Integrating diverse natural components into a single platform presents significant challenges.
Existing methods struggle to unify compositional and structural elements from different natural sources.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a scalable strategy for creating robust, multifunctional surfaces.
To integrate natural pollen structures onto biopolymer films for enhanced material properties.
To explore a novel approach for combining diverse bioresources into sustainable materials.

Main Methods:

A dry process was used to pattern sunflower (Helianthus annuus) pollen grains over wafer-scale areas.
Thermally induced capillary action was employed to reconfigure pollen structures.
Geometrically controlled pollen textures were transferred onto regenerated silk fibroin (Bombyx mori) films.

Main Results:

Robust, tunable, and multifunctional biotextured biopolymer platforms were successfully created.
The hierarchical pollen architecture imparted exceptional surface properties, outperforming natural and synthetic analogs.
The intrinsic advantages of silk fibroin, such as recyclability and biodegradability, were preserved.

Conclusions:

This study presents a scalable method for creating advanced biomaterials by integrating diverse natural elements.
The developed approach decouples and reintegrates natural components, enabling the creation of sustainable materials with enhanced versatility.
This work opens new pathways for combining bioresources to achieve high-performance, multifunctional materials.