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Dynamic polymer systems with self-regulated secretion for the control of surface properties and material healing

Nature Materials volume 14, pages 790–795 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Approaches for regulated fluid secretion, which typically rely on fluid encapsulation and release from a shelled compartment, do not usually allow a fine continuous modulation of secretion, and can be difficult to adapt for monitoring or function-integration purposes1,2,3,4,5. Here, we report self-regulated, self-reporting secretion systems consisting of liquid-storage compartments in a supramolecular polymer-gel matrix with a thin liquid layer on top, and demonstrate that dynamic liquid exchange between the compartments, matrix and surface layer allows repeated, responsive self-lubrication of the surface and cooperative healing of the matrix. Depletion of the surface liquid or local material damage induces secretion of the stored liquid via a dynamic feedback between polymer crosslinking, droplet shrinkage and liquid transport that can be read out through changes in the system’s optical transparency. We foresee diverse applications in fluid delivery, wetting and adhesion control, and material self-repair.

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Figure 1: Schematic of the self-regulated liquid-secretion system.
Figure 2: Characterization of the droplet-embedded gel structure.
Figure 3: Self-regulated secretion by the droplet-embedded gel films.
Figure 4: Self-healing of droplet-embedded gel materials.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the DoE under award # DE-SC0005247 (polymer synthesis and self-repair) and the DoD Office of Naval Research under award N00014-11-1-0641 (wetting and anti-fouling properties). We thank J. Alvarenga for his help with the flow-cell design and measurements, and Y. Hu and M. Aizenberg for discussion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

    Jiaxi Cui, Daniel Daniel, Alison Grinthal & Joanna Aizenberg

  2. Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

    Jiaxi Cui & Joanna Aizenberg

  3. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

    Kaixiang Lin & Joanna Aizenberg

  4. Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

    Joanna Aizenberg

Authors
  1. Jiaxi Cui
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  2. Daniel Daniel
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Contributions

J.C. and J.A. conceived the concepts of the research. J.A. supervised the research. J.C. designed and performed the experiments. D.D. performed the theoretical analysis and calculations; K.L. conducted the secretion experiments with mineral and plant oil; A.G., J.C. and J.A. analysed the results; J.C., D.D., A.G. and J.A. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Joanna Aizenberg.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Cui, J., Daniel, D., Grinthal, A. et al. Dynamic polymer systems with self-regulated secretion for the control of surface properties and material healing. Nature Mater 14, 790–795 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4325

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