Smart surfaces

The fabrication of switchable surfaces has been of interest in different fields such as biotechnology, industry, robotics, and others. We work in the fabrication of high aspect ratio lamellar surface topography by melt-electrowriting of microfibers of a shape-memory polymer. Different types of stimuli are applied to modify the mechanical properties and by it the deformation and recovery of the original surface. Wetting studies showed that the deformation of the high aspect ratio lamellar surface can be tunned not only manually, but as well by a liquid droplet. In the case of thermoresponsive materials, this behavior is controlled by variation of temperature conducted by direct heating/cooling. This feature opens the possibility to apply such topographies for the design of smart elements for microfluidic devices, for example, smart valves.

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Selected publications
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Constante Ibarra, Gissela Katherine; Apsite, Indra; Schönfeld, Dennis; Pretsch, Thorsten; Ionov, Leonid
Reversibly Photoswitchable High-Aspect Ratio Surfaces
in Small Structures (2023)
doi:10.1002/sstr.202300040 ...

Constante Ibarra, Gissela Katherine; Apsite, Indra; Auerbach, Paul; Aland, Sebastian; Schönfeld, Dennis; Pretsch, Thorsten; Milkin, Pavel; Ionov, Leonid
Smart Mechanically Tunable Surfaces with Shape Memory Behavior and Wetting-Programmable Topogra ...
in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces volume 14 (2022) issue 17. - page 20208-20219
doi:10.1021/acsami.2c01078 ...