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Hold On Tight
ASEE Prism, Jan 2008 by Grose, Thomas
POLYHERS
PHILLIP B. MESSERSMITH was inspired by mussels-not by their taste, but by their amazing ability to stick to nearly any surface with great tenacity. Now the Northwestern University biomedical engineer has developed a coating solution that replicates mussels' stubborn sticking power and can be applied to any solid object, of any size or shape.The building block for the polymer coating is dopamine, a small molecule that's usually thought of as a neurotransmitter and is not found in mussels themselves.
Just a few drops of dopamine added to a beaker of water,a few adjustments of the water's pH and-voila! The resulting solution is called polydopamine. "This is an astonishingly simple and versatile approach," Messersmith says.
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Possible applications include flexible electronic displays, biosensors, medical devices and water-treatment processes (removing heavy metals from contaminated water). Sounds like an invention that will, ahem, stick around for years to come. -TG
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Most Popular Articles in Reference
- The importance of understanding organizational culture
- Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students
- What factors attract foreign direct investment?
- Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...
- How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques
- More »