Nanomanufacturing for advanced cell culture platforms and pattern-assisted triboelectric replicable nanogenerators

In this seminar, various polymer nanomanufacturing processes will be discussed for developing advanced cell culture platforms and triboelectric nanogenerators.
In part I, nanoengineered cell culture platforms mimicking physical cell microenvironment of extracellular matrix (ECM) are introduced, which regulate the cell functions including migration, orientation, proliferation and differentiation. Nano Petri dishes, named for nanoengineered polystyrene (PS) cell culture platforms are first introduced with the results of promoted stem cell differentiation and cell migration. A new electrospinning process, electrolyte-assisted electrospinning (ELES) will be then introduced, which was developed for fabricating a spatially controlled, ultra-thin, free-standing nanofiber membranes. A 3D multi-layered blood vessel/tissue model with the nanofiber membrane will be discussed, which allowed to scrutinize multicellular dynamics like the T-cell adhesion cascade found in in vivo blood vessel.
In part II, the concept of "discrete liquid-solid contact electrification", which is result of sequential contact and detachment of liquid with a solid surface, is introduced. Polymer nanomanufacturing processes were developed for incorporating the concept to fabricate energy harvesters, called triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG), and self-powered sensors. A natural leaf-inspired TENG harvesting water droplet energy and a smart pipet tip sensing aqueous solution concentration will be introduced as examples utilizing discrete liquid-solid contact electrification.