Researches

1.Bio-Inspired Study of Smart Nanomaterials

Intrinsical nanostructure of natural biomaterials is evolutional essence that nature leaves to people. It not only endows natural biomaterials with outstanding functions, but also provides people with inspiration in the design of nanomaterials. Based on the research of surface nanostructures of Morpho butterfly, desert plant, marine organism, we fabricated a number of smart nanomaterials by taking advantage of the self-assembly of nanoparticles and nanofibers. The properties of the materials such as structure color, superhydrophilicity/superhydrophobicity, and light protection, can be controlled by external stimuli. Applications in the aspects of photonic crystals, surface modification and biosensor are anticipated.

2.Tunable Photonic Materials and Devices

Photonic crystals are a kind of advanced photonic materials that can be widely employed in low-threshold laser, integrated optical devices, and biosensors. Our group developed methods for monodispersed nanoparticles synthesis and established the technique for photonic crystals fabrication based on nanoparticles self-assembly。We realized the design of tunable photonic crystals by coupling functional molecules with photonic crystals in nanometer level. The tunable photonic crystals have been applied in the aspects of display, information record, and biosensors.

3.Photonic Bioassay

The goal of this research is to establish an integrated platform for multiplex biomolecular detection based on photonic crystals. Firstly, we developed a method to assemble nanoparticles to form photonic crystal beads with three-dimensional structure. These beads were used as biomolecular carries featured with a definite reflection spectrum for encoding. Comparing with other encoding approach, photonic beads are more stable, easier for code design and more sensitive. We also developed new method for bioassay using photonic crystal films, which is real time and label-free.

4.Tunable Microlens Arrays

Microlens arrays, as important optical micro-elements, have wide applications in fiber coupling, integrated optical devices and optical communication systems. With a self-developed microball and microcapsule generator, we fabricated monodispersed polymer microball lenses. By changing the shape of the microlens or the properties of the core materials, we can tune the imaging properties of the microlens with various mechanisms. The tunable microlens arrays constructed by these polymer microballs and microcapsules present its applications in optical microshutter arrays, high contrast spatial light modulator, and endoscope for imaging the surface of three dimensional biomass.

5.Fabrication of Nanofibers

Nanofibers can be used in filters, sensors, biocatalysts, protective clothing, wound dressings, artificial blood vessels, controlled drug delivery and tissue growth applications. Nanofibers with different size and controlled alignement were obtained by electrospinning method in our group. Simultaneously, the electrospun fibers were employed as template for depositing multilayered polyelectrolytes or inorganic nanoparticles with layer-by-layer(LBL) technique. Hollow multilayered nanofibers can be obtained after the template was selectively removed. Size, constitute, shell thickness and surface structure of the obtained hollow multilayered fibers can be tailored according to the requirements.

6.Separation and analysis techniques based on the nanofibers

In this research, we develop environment-friendly separation and highly sensitive analysis techniques based on electrospun fibers. Research includes: fabrication of nanofiber-based devices for solid-phase extraction; micro- and trace-analysis of bioactive molecules (including drugs, poisons, hormones, proteins, peptides and so on); monitoring environmental pollutions; investigation of the distribution, the metabolism, and the dynamics of target molecules in animal and human organism.

7.Drug delivery system based on nanofibers

Drugs can be capsulated directly into electrospun fibers. Compared with the conventional drug delivery system, electrospun fibers will be promising in the future biomedical application because of its nano-size、huge specific surface and relatively high drug load brought by adjustable formulation of electrospinning solutions according to various needs. Furthermore, different with other preparation approaches, electrostatic spinning is simple and timesaving.
Based on electrospun nanofibers, we prepared solid dispersion (SD) of poor water-solubility drugs. The in-vitro drug release test showed that drug dissolution was increased notably, and the bioavailability of the drug dosage form was elevated according to the results of in vivo studies. Oral colon-specific drug delivery system (OCDDS) was also designed for more effective therapy of colon related diseases, prolonging the plasma half-life of drugs and reducing the systemic toxicity of the drugs. A long-term and constant therapeutic effect was obtained. Based on the results, we may expect reasonably that electrospun fibers could be used to prepare orally dosage form for long-term therapy, e.g. orally insulin for diabetes .