Our improved understanding of molecular biology, microfabrication, and materials chemistry has stimulated crossfertilization of two fields that had little overlap even a decade ago: biotechnology and materials engineering. General excitement about this novel perspective has fueled an increasing need for precisely designed materials that can exhibit multiple functions independently and upon demand. While nature has mastered this challenge with perfection, synthetic materials with designable features at the nano- and micron-scale have only recently begun to make a broader appearance.

In my presentation, I will discuss current advances in the design of multifunctional materials including three distinct examples from the Lahann group: (i) Switchable surfaces that can reversibly alter properties in response to an external stimulus, i.e., application of a weak electric field, have been designed and synthesized based on self-assembled monolayers [1]. (ii) Biphasic particles that exhibit a wide range of sizes, shapes and compartmentalizations have been prepared using electrified co-jetting [2]. The individual phases can be independently loaded with different biomolecules or selectively surface-modified. Appropriate design of compartment materials and particle loadings can render biphasic particles to be stimulus-responsive. (iii) Reactive coatings with one or multiple advanced functions can be synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) polymerization [3,4] as well as CVD co-polymerization [5].

1. J. Lahann et al., A Reversibly Switching Surface. Science 2003, 299, 371-374.

2. K.-H. Roh et al., Biphasic Janus Particles With Nanoscale Anisotropy. Nature Materials 2005, 4, 759-763.

3. H. Nandivada et al., Reactive polymer coatings that “click”, Angew. Chem. 2006, 45, 20, 3360-3363.

4. H.Y. Chen et al., PNAS, 2007, 104, 1173-11178.

5. Y. Elkasabi et al., Multi-Potent Polymer Coatings Based On Chemical Vapor Deposition Co-Polymerization. Advanced Materials 2006, 18, 1521-1526.