CURRENT RESEARCH

 

Implant Surfaces: As the older population grows dramatically globally, the need for implanted medical devices for elderly people, such as artificial hip and knee joints, coronary stents, and heart valves, increases rapidly. Concurrently, infections and inflammation caused by bacteria that may be introduced immediately after surgery or develop later, remain a serious complication. There is an urgent need for antibacterial and biocompatible implants that could promote bone-tissue attachment. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wettability: Surface free energy explains the disruption of intermolecular bonds that are created while a surface is generated. The behaviors of surface free energy are favored in different solid physics’ applications. The static contact angles needed to be measured to study their surface free energy characterizations. Several interactions are affecting the solids’ contact angles such as chemical interactions (e.g., solids’ materials type, contamination, liquid type, solids’ coatings, etc.), physical interactions (e.g., roughness, textures, etc.), drop size, etc. Additive manufacturing can allow for the design and control of surface features with customized surface topographies for studying the physical interactions of surface parameters with contact angle. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reverse Engineering of Natural Surfaces: Benthic algae systems that attach to substrata have been shown effective in water pollution remediation and biomass production, but yields are limited by attachment preferences in wild cultivars. This work seeks to uncover the surface topography preferences for algal attachment by reproducing natural surface topographies using additive manufacturing. A material jetting process is used to additively manufacture the surfaces, followed by optical profilometry to validate the resultant topography. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Custom-3D Printed Bio-Media: The specific surface area and topology of a bio-filter media carrier are two of the most important parameters that determine the performance and efficiency of the system. In this work, mathematical models and 3D printing are used to design and fabricate complex media designs that provide high specific surface area and refugia to protect biofilm from premature sloughing. Several gyroid based designs are proposed with specific surface area well beyond 2300 m2/m3. Preliminary results indicate that the 3D printed media can withstand the prevalent conditions in moving bed bioreactors and that the NH3 removal rate of gyroid media is superior to that of commercial K1 Kaldnes. This establishes the feasibility of using 3D printing for bioreactor media fabrication and allows for future topology optimization for enhanced operation.