CAREER: Multiscale Mechanics of Particle Transport in Soft Active Materials

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) project will support fundamental research that investigates how stretching soft materials affects the movement of particles in soft materials. Particle diffusion, the movement of particles, is crucial for the functioning and survival of living organisms. Precise control of particle diffusion can improve technologies in drug delivery, water treatment, and biosensing.

Normally, particle diffusion relies on the natural properties of liquids, which are hard to change. This award supports fundamental research to investigate how stretching soft materials can precisely control the direction and speed of particle diffusion. The findings from this project will expand scientific knowledge that guides the design of advanced drug delivery systems, addressing grand U.S. societal challenges in medicine and agriculture.

In addition, this project will promote education and outreach activities by building strong partnerships between universities and industry. This will help turn academic research into practical applications, benefiting both sectors across the nation. The educational objective of this CAREER project will be integrated with the research aims through multi-level education and outreach activities.

Specifically, an annual two-day university-industry workshop to foster workforce development in polymer industry and biotechnologies will be hosted. In addition, a K-12 Soft Matter Summer Camp will be developed to energize the interest of K-12 students in soft materials science, encouraging them to strive toward STEM education.

The research objective of this CAREER project is to exploit mechanical deformation as a new design space to program particle transport in soft active materials by understanding the large deformation, polymer-network microstructure evolution, reversible particle-polymer interactions, and hopping diffusion of particles across multiple length and time scales. Specifically, this project will leverage combined efforts of continuum large-deformation theory and mechano-transport experiment complemented by coarse grain simulations to reveal the mechano-transport mechanism in hydrogels, which involves the large deformation, polymer-network microstructure evolution, and particle hopping diffusion across multiple length scales.

In addition, themechano-transport mechanism in hydrogels under dynamic loading, which involves stretching and relaxation of polymer chains, reversible particle-polymer interactions, and diffusion of particles across multiple time scales will be investigated. Finally, an uncovered mechano-transport mechanism in a pressure-triggered tissue-adhesive drug delivery system for its efficacy and precise spatiotemporal control over the release of targeted drug molecules will be validated.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.