[nanoPost] Nanometric Environments and Adhesion Properties

Imparting various specific and ordered patterns of nanofeature on the surfaces of a wide range of materials is a new way of obtaining long-lasting reductions in adhesion, unmatched by other methods for adhesion reduction.

These surface nanofeatures can be estimated to reduce adhesion by a factor of several hundreds to a thousand fold without altering surface chemistry.

Surfaces have been made in silica, silicon, polycaprolactone, polymethyl methacrylate, polycarbonate etc. that show this property of low adhesion. In principle they might also be made in other polymers, softer metals and other materials, which can be cast or embossed with high accuracy.

Key Benefits

In vitro and in vivo data on nanometrically patterned biocompatible substrates in a wide range of materials demonstrates the low adhesion of a variety of cell types and also of particulate non-living materials.
Patent applications are pending, providing a proprietary position in this area.
Applications

Since biomedical devices and a vast range of manufactured products require areas of low adhesion, this novel process has the potential for a wide range of applications: biomedical devices (stents, catheters); tissue engineering scaffolds; and non-fouling systems (e.g low friction, optical transparency).