Many natural surfaces, including the wings of cicada insects, have shown to display bactericidal properties as a result of surface topography. Moreover, the size and distribution of the surface features (on the nano- and microscale) are known to influence the efficacy of the surface at inhibiting bacterial cell growth. While these types of natural surfaces illustrate the effect of structure on the bactericidal activity, a deeper understanding can be achieved by creating surfaces of different feature sizes. This is essential in order to understand the effects of changes of surface topography on bacteria-surface interactions. To this end, we have performed a series of replica molding processes of the wings of the Megapomponia Intermedia cicada to prepare wing replicas in polyethylene glycol (PEG), which possess the topographical features of the wing surface, with a minimum loss of feature resolution. Atomic force microscopy characterization of these patterned surfaces in both air and aqueous environments shows that by controlling the swelling characteristics of the PEG, we can control the ultimate swollen dimensions of the nanopillar structures on the surface of PEG. As a result, by using a single wing with an average nanopillar height of 220 nm, different patterned PEG samples with nanopillar heights ranging from 180 to 307 nm were produced.
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November 2020
Research Article|
December 23 2020
Replica molding of cicada wings: The role of water at point of synthesis on nanostructure feature size
Special Collection:
Special Topic Collection: Biomimetics of Biointerfaces
Shauna P. Flynn;
Shauna P. Flynn
1
School of Chemistry, University College Dublin
, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
2
National Centre for Plasma Science and Technology, Dublin City University
, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland
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Stephen Daniels;
Stephen Daniels
2
National Centre for Plasma Science and Technology, Dublin City University
, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland
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Brian J. Rodriguez
;
Brian J. Rodriguez
3
School of Physics and Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research, University College Dublin
, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
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Susan M. Kelleher
Susan M. Kelleher
a)
1
School of Chemistry, University College Dublin
, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: susan.kelleher@ucd.ie
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: susan.kelleher@ucd.ie
Note: This paper is part of the Biointerphases Special Topic Collection on Biomimetics of Biointerfaces.
Biointerphases 15, 061017 (2020)
Article history
Received:
September 15 2020
Accepted:
November 30 2020
Connected Content
A companion article has been published:
Replica molds of cicada wings give flight to possibilities of antibacterial surfaces
Citation
Shauna P. Flynn, Stephen Daniels, Brian J. Rodriguez, Susan M. Kelleher; Replica molding of cicada wings: The role of water at point of synthesis on nanostructure feature size. Biointerphases 1 November 2020; 15 (6): 061017. https://doi.org/10.1116/6.0000637
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