Driving macro-scale transformations in three-dimensional-printed biopolymers through controlled induction of molecular anisotropy at the nanoscale.

Motivated by the need to harness the properties of renewable and biodegradable polymers for the design and manufacturing of multi-scale structures with complex geometries, we have employed our additive manufacturing platform that leverages molecular self-assembly for the production of metre-scale structures characterized by complex geometries and heterogeneous material composition. As a precursor material, we used chitosan, a chemically modified form of chitin, an abundant and sustainable structural polysaccharide. We demonstrate the ability to control concentration-dependent crystallization as well as the induction of the preferred orientation of the polymer chains through the combination of extrusion-based robotic fabrication and directional toolpathing. Anisotropy is demonstrated and assessed through high-resolution micro-X-ray diffraction in conjunction with finite element simulations. Using this approach, we can leverage controlled and user-defined small-scale propagation of residual stresses to induce large-scale folding of the resulting structures.

A cantilevered liquid-nitrogen-cooled silicon mirror for the Advanced Light Source Upgrade.

This paper presents a novel cantilevered liquid-nitrogen-cooled silicon mirror design for the first optic in a new soft X-ray beamline that is being developed as part of the Advanced Light Source Upgrade (ALS-U) (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA). The beamline is optimized for photon energies between 400 and 1400 eV with full polarization control. Calculations indicate that, without correction, this design will achieve a Strehl ratio greater than 0.85 for the entire energy and polarization ranges of the beamline. With a correction achieved by moving the focus 7.5 mm upstream, the minimum Strehl ratio is 0.99. This design is currently the baseline plan for all new ALS-U insertion device beamlines.

Controlling Morphology and Molecular Packing of Alkane Substituted Phthalocyanine Blend Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells.

Systematic changes in the exocyclic substiution of core phthalocyanine platform tune the absorption properties to yield commercially viable dyes that function as the primary light absorbers in organic bulk heterojunction solar cells. Blends of these complementary phthalocyanines absorb a broader portion of the solar spectrum compared to a single dye, thereby increasing solar cell performance. We correlate grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering structural data with solar cell performance to elucidate the role of nanomorphology of active layers composed of blends of phthalocyanines and a fullerene derivative. A highly reproducible device architecture is used to assure accuracy and is relevant to films for solar windows in urban settings. We demonstrate that the number and structure of the exocyclic motifs dictate phase formation, hierarchical organization, and nanostructure, thus can be employed to tailor active layer morphology to enhance exciton dissociation and charge collection efficiencies in the photovoltaic devices. These studies reveal that disordered films make better solar cells, short alkanes increase the optical density of the active layer, and branched alkanes inhibit unproductive homogeneous molecular alignment.

Molecular crowding of collagen: a pathway to produce highly-organized collagenous structures.

Collagen in vertebrate animals is often arranged in alternating lamellae or in bundles of aligned fibrils which are designed to withstand in vivo mechanical loads. The formation of these organized structures is thought to result from a complex, large-area integration of individual cell motion and locally-controlled synthesis of fibrillar arrays via cell-surface fibripositors (direct matrix printing). The difficulty of reproducing such a process in vitro has prevented tissue engineers from constructing clinically useful load-bearing connective tissue directly from collagen. However, we and others have taken the view that long-range organizational information is potentially encoded into the structure of the collagen molecule itself, allowing the control of fibril organization to extend far from cell (or bounding) surfaces. We here demonstrate a simple, fast, cell-free method capable of producing highly-organized, anistropic collagen fibrillar lamellae de novo which persist over relatively long-distances (tens to hundreds of microns). Our approach to nanoscale organizational control takes advantage of the intrinsic physiochemical properties of collagen molecules by inducing collagen association through molecular crowding and geometric confinement. To mimic biological tissues which comprise planar, aligned collagen lamellae (e.g. cornea, lamellar bone or annulus fibrosus), type I collagen was confined to a thin, planar geometry, concentrated through molecular crowding and polymerized. The resulting fibrillar lamellae show a striking resemblance to native load-bearing lamellae in that the fibrils are small, generally aligned in the plane of the confining space and change direction en masse throughout the thickness of the construct. The process of organizational control is consistent with embryonic development where the bounded planar cell sheets produced by fibroblasts suggest a similar confinement/concentration strategy. Such a simple approach to nanoscale organizational control of structure not only makes de novo tissue engineering a possibility, but also suggests a clearer pathway to organization for fibroblasts than direct matrix printing.

The stomatopod dactyl club: a formidable damage-tolerant biological hammer.

Nature has evolved efficient strategies to synthesize complex mineralized structures that exhibit exceptional damage tolerance. One such example is found in the hypermineralized hammer-like dactyl clubs of the stomatopods, a group of highly aggressive marine crustaceans. The dactyl clubs from one species, Odontodactylus scyllarus, exhibit an impressive set of characteristics adapted for surviving high-velocity impacts on the heavily mineralized prey on which they feed. Consisting of a multiphase composite of oriented crystalline hydroxyapatite and amorphous calcium phosphate and carbonate, in conjunction with a highly expanded helicoidal organization of the fibrillar chitinous organic matrix, these structures display several effective lines of defense against catastrophic failure during repetitive high-energy loading events.

The role of moderate static magnetic fields on biomineralization of osteoblasts on sulfonated polystyrene films.

We have investigated the effects of moderate static magnetic fields (SMFs) on murine MC3T3-E1 osteoblasts, and found that they enhance proliferations and promote differentiation. The increase in proliferation rates in response to SMFs was greater in cultures grown on partially sulfonated polytstyrene (SPS, degree of sulfonation: 33%) than in cultures grown on tissue culture plastic. We have previously shown that when the degree of sulfonation exceeded a critical value (12%) [1], spontaneous fibrillogenesis occured which allowed for direct observation of the ECM fibrillar organization under the influence of external fields. We found that the ECM produced in cultures grown on the SPS in the presence of the SMFs assembled into a lattice with larger dimensions than the ECM of the cultures grown in the absence of SMFs. During the early stages of the biomineralization process (day 7), the SMF exposed cultures also templated mineral deposition more rapidly than the control cultures. The rapid response is attributed to orientation of diamagnetic ECM proteins already present in the serum, which could then initiate further cellular signaling. SMFs also influenced late stage osteoblast differentiation as measured by the increased rate of osteocalcin secretion and gene expression beginning 15 days after SFM exposure. This correlated with a large increase in mineral deposition, and in cell modulus. GIXD and EDXS analysis confirmed early deposition of crystalline hydroxyapatite. Previous studies on the effects of moderate SMF had focused on cellular gene and protein expression, but did not consider the organization of the ECM fibers. Our ability to form these fibers has allowed us explore this additional effect and highlight its significance in the initiation of the biomineralization process.

Morphology of air nanobubbles trapped at hydrophobic nanopatterned surfaces.

The details of air nanobubble trapping at the interface between water and a nanostructured hydrophobic silicon surface are investigated using X-ray scattering and contact angle measurements. Large-area silicon surfaces containing hexagonally packed, 20 nm wide hydrophobic cavities provide ideal model surfaces for studying the morphology of air nanobubbles trapped inside cavities and its dependence on the cavity depth. Transmission small-angle X-ray scattering measurements show stable trapping of air inside the cavities with a partial water penetration of 5-10 nm into the pores, independent of their large depth variation. This behavior is explained by consideration of capillary effects and the cavity geometry. For parabolic cavities, the liquid can reach a thermodynamically stable configuration-a nearly planar nanobubble meniscus-by partially penetrating into the pores. This microscopic information correlates very well with the macroscopic surface wetting behavior.

Complementary effects of multi-protein components on biomineralization in vitro.

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is composed of mixed protein fibers whose precise composition affects biomineralization. New methods are needed to probe the interactions of these proteins with calcium phosphate mineral and with each other. Here we follow calcium phosphate mineralization on protein fibers self-assembled in vitro from solutions of fibronectin, elastin and their mixture. We probe the surface morphology and mechanical properties of the protein fibers during the early stages. The development of mineral crystals on the protein matrices is also investigated. In physiological mineralization solution, the elastic modulus of the fibers in the fibronectin-elastin mixture increases to a greater extent than that of the fibers from either pure protein. In the presence of fibronectin, longer exposure in the mineral solution leads to the formation of amorphous calcium phosphate particles templated along the self-assembled fibers, while elastin fibers only collect calcium without any mineral observed during early stage. TEM images confirm that small needle-shape crystals are confined inside elastin fibers which suppress the release of mineral outside the fibers during late stage, while hydroxyapatite crystals form when fibronectin is present. These results demonstrate complementary actions of the two ECM proteins fibronectin and elastin to collect cations and template mineral, respectively.

Growth and characterization of high-quality protein crystals for X-ray crystallography.

Tetragonal hen egg white lysozyme is grown by the batch method in solution and gel media to study the influence of high magnetic fields on the quality of macromolecular crystals. The crystallographic quality of crystals grown in the absence and in the presence of 7- and 10-T fields are analyzed in terms of mosaicity and high-resolution X-ray imaging methods. Crystals grown by the batch method from solution showed a remarkable enhancement of the crystallographic quality, although the overall crystal quality was higher for gel-grown crystals than solution-grown crystals. The observed improvement in crystal quality can be attributed to the suppression of convective transport during the crystal growth process and the control of the nucleation kinetics by the use of a magnetic force.

Biomineralization of a self-assembled extracellular matrix for bone tissue engineering.

Understanding how biomineralization occurs in the extracellular matrix (ECM) of bone cells is crucial to the understanding of bone formation and the development of a successfully engineered bone tissue scaffold. It is still unclear how ECM mechanical properties affect protein-mineral interactions in early stages of bone mineralization. We investigated the longitudinal mineralization properties of MC3T3-E1 cells and the elastic modulus of their ECM using shear modulation force microscopy, synchrotron grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD), scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). The elastic modulus of the ECM fibers underwent significant changes for the mineralizing cells, which were not observed in the nonmineralizing cells. On substrates conducive to ECM network production, the elastic modulus of mineralizing cells increased at time points corresponding to mineral production, whereas that of the nonmineralizing cells did not vary over time. The presence of hydroxyapatite in mineralizing cells and the absence thereof in the nonmineralizing ones were confirmed by GIXD, and CLSM showed that a restructuring of actin occurred only for mineral-producing cells. These results show that the correct and complete development of the ECM network is required for osteoblasts to mineralize. This in turn requires a suitably prepared synthetic substrate for bone development to succeed in vitro.

Template adaptability is key in the oriented crystallization of CaCO3.

In CaCO3, biomineralization nucleation and growth of the crystals are related to the presence of carboxylate-rich proteins within a macromolecular matrix, often with organized beta-sheet domains. To understand the interplay between the organic template and the mineral crystal it is important to explicitly address the issue of structural adaptation of the template during mineralization. To this end we have developed a series of self-organizing surfactants (1-4) consisting of a dodecyl chain connected via a bisureido-heptylene unit to an amino acid head group. In Langmuir monolayers the spacing of these molecules in one direction is predetermined by the hydrogen-bonding distances between the bis-urea units. In the other direction, the intermolecular distance is determined by steric interactions introduced by the side groups (-R) of the amino acid moiety. Thus, by the choice of the amino acid we can systematically alter the density of the surfactant molecules in a monolayer and their ability to respond to the presence of calcium ions. The monolayer films are characterized by surface pressure-surface area (pi-A) isotherms, Brewster angle microscopy, in-situ synchrotron X-ray scattering at fixed surface area, and also infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS) of films transferred to solid substrates. The developing crystals are studied with scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM, TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and crystal modeling. The results demonstrate that although all compounds are active in the nucleation of calcium carbonate, habit modification is only observed when the size of the side group allows the molecules to rearrange and adapt their organization in response to the mineral phase.

Complementary control by additives of the kinetics of amorphous CaCO3 mineralization at an organic interface: in-situ synchrotron x-ray observations.

The kinetics of biomimetic mineralization at a fatty acid monolayer interface have been measured in situ by synchrotron x-ray reflectivity. The formation of biologically relevant amorphous calcium carbonate films is affected by soluble macromolecules, supersaturation rate of change, and Mg cations. We find that these solution conditions influence mineral film formation in a complementary fashion. Poly(sodium acrylate) extends the lifetime of metastable amorphous calcium carbonate, solution saturation controls the mineral film growth rate, and Mg cations create a longer induction time. This is the first quantification of potentially competitive biomineralization mechanisms that addresses nucleation and growth of the amorphous mineral phases, which are important in biomineralization.

Resonant x-ray reflectivity from a bromine-labeled fatty acid Langmuir monolayer.

Resonant x-ray reflectivity exploits the energy dependence of atomic scattering factors to locate resonant atoms within the electron density distribution of thin films. We apply the technique to a monolayer of bromo-stearic acid at the air/water interface. The data collection protocol employed cycles through several energies in the vicinity of the bromine K absorption edge and verifies that the energy dependencies observed are indeed resonant effects. The analysis specifies the location of the Br atom with sub-angstrom precision and must consider both the real and imaginary parts of the changes in the scattering factor to be consistent with the known structure and stoichiometry of this test case.