Polymers at hard and soft surfaces

Event details
Date | 15.11.2016 |
Hour | 16:00 |
Speaker | Prof. Harm-Anton Klok, EPFL |
Location | |
Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Thin polymer coatings are of great importance to control the interactions of synthetic materials with other materials, the environment as well as biology. Examples include, but are not limited to, lubrication, wear, corrosion as well as marine biofouling. Modern polymer science offers unprecedented opportunities to chemically engineer the properties of surfaces and interfaces. The first part of this presentation will focus on synthetic, “hard” surfaces and introduce surface-initiated radical polymerization techniques and “polymer brushes” (chain-end tethered monomolecular assemblies of densely grafted polymer chains) and discuss the scope and possibilities of these concepts to chemically modify surfaces and interfaces. Several showcases will be presented that illustrate the use of these tools to develop thin polymer films that possess sensory properties or which can be used to control fluid flow, to template the controlled growth of metallic or non-metallic inorganic films on complex, 3D structured substrates as well as to guide and control cell adhesion.
The second part of this presentation will discuss the modification of biological surfaces, more specifically the membrane of living cells with synthetic polymers. Engineering living cells with synthetic polymers is attractive for cell based therapies. Chemical modification of cell surfaces, in contrast to synthetic surfaces, is challenging, since they are fluid and dynamic and since chemistries are required that do not impart the viability and functionality of the cells. Results from preliminary experiments will be discussed in which living cells have been decorated with model polymer nanoparticles.
Bio: Harm-Anton Klok is Full Professor at the Institute of Materials at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) (Lausanne, Switzerland). His research interests include polymer nanomedicine as well as polymer surface and interface science. He studied chemical technology at the University of Twente (Enschede, The Netherlands) and received his Ph.D. from the University of Ulm (Germany). After postdoctoral research at the University of Twente and at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (USA), he joined the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (Mainz, Germany). In November 2002, he was appointed to the faculty of EPFL.
He has been Director of the Institute of Materials since 2012, and is also Director of the Molecular and Hybrid Materials Characterization Center at EPFL.
The second part of this presentation will discuss the modification of biological surfaces, more specifically the membrane of living cells with synthetic polymers. Engineering living cells with synthetic polymers is attractive for cell based therapies. Chemical modification of cell surfaces, in contrast to synthetic surfaces, is challenging, since they are fluid and dynamic and since chemistries are required that do not impart the viability and functionality of the cells. Results from preliminary experiments will be discussed in which living cells have been decorated with model polymer nanoparticles.
Bio: Harm-Anton Klok is Full Professor at the Institute of Materials at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) (Lausanne, Switzerland). His research interests include polymer nanomedicine as well as polymer surface and interface science. He studied chemical technology at the University of Twente (Enschede, The Netherlands) and received his Ph.D. from the University of Ulm (Germany). After postdoctoral research at the University of Twente and at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (USA), he joined the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (Mainz, Germany). In November 2002, he was appointed to the faculty of EPFL.
He has been Director of the Institute of Materials since 2012, and is also Director of the Molecular and Hybrid Materials Characterization Center at EPFL.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- SCHOOL of ENGINEERING (STI) SEMINAR
Contact
- Loeffen Berthet Carole <carole.berthet@epfl.ch>