Development of repellent surfaces which can supress bacteria adhesion, blood contamination and thrombosis, and non-specific adhesion on diagnostic devices has been a topic of intense research as these characteristics are in high demand. This thesis focused on design and development of omniphobic surfaces based on hierarchical structures and their application for preventing pathogenic contamination and biosensing. First, a flexible hierarchical heat-shrinkable wrap featuring micro and nanostructures, was developed with straightforward scalable methods which can be applied to existing surfaces. These surfaces reduced biofilm formation of World Health Organization-designated priority pathogens as well as minimized risk of spreading contamination from intermediate surfaces. This is due to the broad liquid repellency and the presence of reduced anchor points for bacterial adhesion on the hierarchical surfaces. Next, the developed surfaces were applied to minimize blood contamination and clot formation as well as facile integration of hydrophilic patterns. This led to droplet compartmentalization and was utilized for detection of Interleukin 6 in a rapid dip-based assay. Furthermore, in a review article the need for anti-viral or virus repellent surfaces and future perspectives were discussed as the global COVID-19 pandemic surged and attracted interest toward innovative technologies for suppressing the spread of pathogens. To address the pressing issue of non-specific adhesion in diagnostics devices, an omniphobic liquid infused electrochemical biosensor was developed. This was achieved by electroplating gold nanostructures on fluorosilanized gold electrodes. These electrodes demonstrated rapid and specific detection of Escherichia coli within an hour in complex biological liquids (blood, urine, etc.) without dilutions or amplification steps from clinical patient samples which are major bottle necks when rapid detection systems are sought for at the point of care. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Repellent surfaces have a variety of applications in healthcare, for coating medical devices (e.g. indwelling implants, stethoscopes, and other external devices.), coating hospital surfaces for blood and pathogen repellency, and for developing anti-fouling diagnostic devices. Furthermore, they can be applied in the food sector for limiting contaminations, and in public areas on high-touch surfaces to eliminate the spread of infection. Therefore, there is a need for repellent surface which can be easily applied to surfaces with various form factors while having an easy fabrication method. Featuring hierarchical structures on a heat-shrinkable material, a repellent wrap was designed to be integrated on existing surfaces and repel pathogens and suppress the spread of infection as an intermediate surface. Similar concept was used for designing blood repellent surfaces which were patterned with hydrophilic regions for a rapid dip-based biosensing platform. Finally, surface textures on conductive materials with liquid infused repellent coatings were investigated for electrochemical biosensing in complex biological liquids.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/27847 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Moetakef Imani, Sara |
| Contributors | Didar, Tohid, Soleymani, Leyla, Biomedical Engineering |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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