|
Bio-Related Materials
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the past five years, a growing number of interdisciplinary research themes have emerged at the frontier between biology, materials chemistry and physics. The majority of these themes have emerged from the growing field of Biomineralization, where CIMAT has being actively involved. Conceptually, the notion that organisms show inherent bottom-up materials-building processes across many length scales (from nano- to meterscale) is still far from being understood and is becoming a powerful source of bio-inspired fabrication of novel materials. Research in bio-related materials in the next five years will focus in three subprograms: “Natural Bioceramic Materials”, “Bio-inspired Design of Biomaterials” and “Biomaterials growth”.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
Natural bioceramic materials: The study of the biological structure, chemistry, physical properties, and strategies of natural fabrication of different biominerals has been, and still is, the main source of bio-inspiration for controlling crystal nucleation and growth. Therefore, as it has been occurring worldwide, we must duplicate our efforts to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms that give rise to these remarkable inorganic structures, and trying to correlated their chemical structure with physical properties at different scales. Materials with similar mechanical and structural characteristics of the ceramic class can be manufacturred commercially by man but usually at very high temperatures, 1,500 - 2,000°C. In an energy conservation sense or from a biotechnology perspective, the question arises as to whether such hard substances can be formed at low temperatures following principles which are garnered from biological evolution as it has formed hard tissues in cell-mediated processes. The potential for relatively low temperature fabrication processes of hard materials also allows the inclusion of organic molecules which could drastically improve the mechanical properties of such fabricated ceramic materials. Such organic fillers or composites would, of course, not survive the high temperature usually used in the formation of common ceramics. The ultimate utility of such a biomimetical generation of low temperature ceramic composites will be that they will posses mechanical and physical properties not possible under current fabrication methodologies.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Biomaterials growth: Terrace dynamics and the effect of additives: The understanding of physical and biological mechanisms that regulate the formation and growth of natural and artificial bioceramic material is one of the common objectives of the Center. From a physical point of view, it is well recognized that the study of local processes taking place at interfaces can provide useful information to complement biological studies. Thus, for the next years, we shall focus our efforts in the development of a variety of experimental configuration to test, for instance, local concentration of reactants, local pH variations, external electric fields, and the elastic effects due to the inclusion of large biomolecules. Specific actions will include the local studies of calcite growth using atomic force techniques, and the use of electrochemical methods to understand how various physical variables affect the crystal growth of calcite.
A list of the most relevant publications is available here. For the accomplishment of investigation and studies the group has a laboratory of more than 300 m2 equipped with:
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
Department of Animal Biological Science, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias y Pecuarias, Universidad de Chile. Santa Rosa 11735, Santiago, Chile. Phone: (56 2) 6785550.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home
|
|
