In this thesis biomimetic design is applied to the redesign of a PEM fuel cell flow field. A number of designs inspired by biological phenomena were developed to address the problem of attaining a uniform current density distribution across a PEM fuel cell. These designs are evaluated using a numerical model. One design, inspired by Murray’s law of branching in plants and animals, is further evaluated using and a physical model and comparing it to a commercial triple serpentine flow field. Improvements in pressure drop were seen for the Murray’s law inspired flow field, however, it was found to be prone to flooding. If this flow field design were to be applied to high temperature membrane materials, materials that can operate above 100 °C where water is always in the vapor state, the mass transfer and reduced pressure drop advantages of the Murray flow field could be fully achieved.

Acyl groups in biochemical reactions are activated as acyl adenylates; such intermediates are generated by a reaction with ATP. Acyl adenylates are mixed carboxylic-phosphoric anhydrides which are potentially useful as biomimetic reagents for acylation reactions in water. These species have been reported to be unstable and have been isolated without purification. Since the adenylate portion is necessarily complex because it originates from ATP, we reasoned that using a simple alkyl group in place of adenosine might allow the biomimetic process to proceed without the difficulties reported. Our laboratory has developed routes towards such acyl phosphate alkyl monoesters and we have used them for several applications. Such materials react rapidly and selectively with amines in order to produce amides. While reactions utilizing lanthanide ions allow for the selective monoacylation of diols through bis-dentate chelates of the lanthanide. However, the efficiency of diol acylation is limited due to significant hydrolysis of the phosphate reagent and the requirement of a stoichiometric amount of the lanthanide ion. Therefore, three distinct approaches towards improving the efficiency of lanthanide promoted acylation were investigated: addition of an inert co-solvent in an attempt to reduce hydrolysis, eliminating the stoichiometric requirement of the lanthanide by addition of MgII, and the development of immobilized lanthanides as catalysts for acylation. Finally, aminoacyl phosphates are biomimetically activated amino acids and in principle should function as peptide synthesis reagents. The stability and solubility of the activated materials in water presents an opportunity to perform aqueous peptide coupling; such a process is limited by the fact that common peptide coupling agents are either insoluble or unstable in water. Therefore, we investigated the reactions of aminoacyl phosphates with amino acid esters. We find that peptides form readily in buffered solutions, establishing a basis for a general protocol for aqueous amino acid coupling and could be adapted for applications such as solid phase peptide synthesis.

Engineering design methods focus on developing products that are innovative, robust, and multi-functional. In this context, the term robust refers to a product's ability to accomplish successfully its predetermined functions. Owing to the abundance of optimized and robust biological systems, engineering designers are now looking to nature for inspiration. Researchers believe that biomimetic or bio-inspired engineering systems can leverage the principles, mechanisms, processes, strategies, and/or morphologies of nature's successful designs. Unfortunately, two important problems associated with biomimetic design are a designer's limited knowledge of biology and the difference in biological and engineering terminologies. This research developed a new design tool that addresses these problems and proposes to help engineering designers develop candidate bio-inspired products or solutions. A methodology that helps users infer or extract biomimetic design principles from a given natural system or biomimetic product pair is described in this thesis. The method incorporates and integrates five existing design tools and theories to comprehensively investigate a given natural system or biomimetic product. Subsequently, this method is used to extract biomimetic design principles from 23 biomimetic products and natural systems. It is proposed that these principles have the potential to inspire ideas for candidate biomimetic products that are novel, innovative, and robust. The principle extraction methodology and the identified principles are validated using two separate case studies and a detailed analysis using the validation square framework. In the first case study, two students and the author use the principle extraction methodology to extract characteristics from a natural system and a biomimetic product pair. Results from this case study showed that the methodology effectively and repeatedly identifies system characteristics that exemplify inherent biomimetic design principles. In the second case study, the developed biomimetic design principles are used to inspire a solution for an engineering design problem. The resulting solution and its evaluation show that the design's achieved usefulness is linked to applying the biomimetic design principles. Similar to the TRIZ principles, the biomimetic design principles can inspire ideas for solutions to a given problem. The key difference is that designers using TRIZ leverage the solution strategies of engineering patents, while designers using the biomimetic design principles leverage nature’s solution strategies. The biomimetic design principles are compared to TRIZ and the BioTRIZ matrix.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Polymer, Textile and Fiber Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. / Committee Chair: Tsukruk, Vladimir; Committee Member: Shofner, Meisha; Committee Member: Srinivasarao, Mohan; Committee Member: Thio, Yonathan; Committee Member: Weissburg, Marc. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

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Thesis (M.S.)--California Polytechnic State University, 2009. / Mode of access: Internet. Title from PDF title page; viewed on September 23, 2009. Major professor: Kristen O'Halloran Cardinal, Ph.D. "Presented to the faculty of the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo." "In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree [of] Master of Science in General Engineering with specialization in Biomedical Engineering." "June 2009." Includes bibliographical references (p. 110-122).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Institute of Paper Science and Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2003. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis is regarded with the biomimetic total synthesis of phenolic natural products and describes two different projects. Chapter 1 introduces phenolic natural products, the most important biosynthetic pathways for their formation and some examples of relevant biomimetic syntheses. A short introduction to dimeric and pseudo-dimeric natural products can also be found in this chapter. Specific introductions can be found at the start of Chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 2 describes the total synthesis of a dimeric thymol derivative isolated from Arnica sachalinensis (which we have named “thymarnicol”). Inspired by the biosynthesis proposed by Passreiter and co-workers, we tested and confirmed the feasibility of a key hetero-Diels–Alder dimerisation step. During our investigations, we gained significant new insights into the origin and reactivity of thymarnicol. The final oxidative cyclisation has been found to occur spontaneously upon exposure to visible light in air. Chapter 3 discusses our efforts to develop a divergent biomimetic synthetic strategy towards a family of prenylated phenylpropanoid natural products isolated from Illicium genus plants. Our first biomimetic approach revealed the chemical instability of our proposed key intermediates. Therefore, a revised approach was trialled, allowing the total synthesis of a small set of natural products and related structures. We envisage that this strategy could be exploited by accessing a large number of members of this family of compounds.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-01-25Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:53:29Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 almeidafilho_e_me_araiq.pdf: 3265142 bytes, checksum: 2bf9ca6d5fd6073e7eed8a3b69720493 (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / As pesquisas em biomateriais caminham na busca de dispositivos nos quais, além da resistência mecânica, oferece adequada relação entre bioatividade/biocompatibilidade quando em contato com tecidos biológicos. Atualmente os biomateriais para serem utilizados como implantes são classificados como bioinertes, biotoleráveis e bioativos. No presente trabalho estudou-se as fases de apatitas presentes nos recobrimentos obtidos pelo método biomimético em substratos de titânio pré-modificados superficialmente empregando-se ablação por feixe de laser, objetivando a interação entre o substrato e o recobrimento, visando à aplicação clínica em implantes dentários e ortopédicos. Após estudos piloto, definiu-se condições pré-estabelecidas e as amostras tiveram suas superfícies irradiadas pelo laser Nd:YAG, em atmosfera normal. As amostras foram irradiadas pelo Laser pulsado Nd:YAG, e foram estabelecidas quatro condições de estudo para o trabalho, onde as irradiações foram realizados em ar e pressão atmosférica. Os recobrimentos, sobre as superfícies irradiadas, foram realizados pelo método biomimético, onde as amostras modificadas foram imersas na solução SBF (Simulated Body Fluid) e permaneceram por 4 dias, para a formação da camada de apatitas, este grupo ganhou destaque por possuírem composição semelhante ao tecido ósseo humano. As caracterizações das amostras foram realizadas pelas técnicas de microscopia eletrônica de varredura, espectroscopia de energia dispersiva, difração de raios-X e espectroscopia no infravermelho com transformada de Fourier. Resultados da modificação por feixe de Laser mostraram que as quatro condições estabelecidas sugeriram ter energia suficiente para promover a ablação na superfície irradiada. Verificou-se que na irradiação por feixe de laser ocorre o processos de fusão e solidificação rápida proveniente... / The researches biomaterials in walk in the search of devices us which, besides the mechanical resistance, offer appropriate relationship among bioativity/biocompatibility when in contact with woven biological. Nowadays the biomaterials to be used as implants are classified as bioinert, biotolerability and bioactives. In the work present was study the apatites phases current in the coating obtained by the biomimetic method in substratum of titanium pré-modify superficially being used ablation by laser bunch, aiming at the interaction between the substratum and the coating, seeking to the clinical application in dental and orthopedical implants. After pilot study, it was defined pré-established conditions and the samples had their surfaces irradiated by the laser Nd:YAG, in normal atmosphere. The samples were irradiated by the pulsed Laser Nd:YAG, and they were established four study conditions for the work, where the irradiations were accomplished in air and atmospheric pressure. The coatings, on the irradiated surfaces, were accomplished by the biomimetic method, where the modified samples were immersed in the solution SBF (Simulated Body Fluid) and they stayed for 4 days, for the formation of the apatites layer, this group won prominence for they possess composition similar to the human bone fabric. The characterizations of the samples were accomplished by the techniques o SEM, EDS, XRD and FTIR. Results of the modification for beam of Laser showed that the four established conditions suggested to have enough energy to promote the ablation in the irradiated surface. It was verified that in the irradiation for laser beam happens the processes melt and originating from fast solidification the irradiation for laser, in normal atmosphere, they induce the oxides formation of titanium stoichiometric and non-stoichiometric with different oxidation degrees as Ti3O and Ti6O and with different... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)