Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

5-2017

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph. D.

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Degree Program

Mechanical Engineering, PhD

Committee Chair

Keynton, Robert

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

Williams, Stuart

Committee Member

Berfield, Thomas

Committee Member

O’Toole, Martin

Committee Member

Sumanasekera, Gamini

Author's Keywords

perivascular band; piezoelectric; tissue scaffold; 0-3 piezo-composite

Abstract

Piezo-active composites have been implemented for sensing and transduction for decades. The 0-3 ceramic/polymer composite is one of the most common composite types used for sensing applications, owing to their tailorable properties of the two-phase composition, consisting of a three-dimensionally connected polymer/rubber matrix (inactive phase) with a dispersion of isolated piezo-ceramic particles (active phase). This thesis describes a method to develop novel biocompatible perivascular band comprised of a two-phase piezo-active composite to be fabricated using simple manufacturing processes. Biomaterials such as tissue scaffolds comprised of silk fibroin (SF) and chitosan (CS), and biocompatible soft rubbers will be implemented as the three dimensional inactive matrix, while a biocompatible piezo-ceramic nanoparticle such as Zinc Oxide (ZnO) will be pursued as the piezo-active ceramic particles. Two compositions were pursued, 1.) a biocompatible/biodegradable approach consisting of tissue scaffold (SFCS) and ZnO particle formulation and 2.) a biocompatible soft rubber and ZnO particle formulation. Test samples were fabricated using aforementioned formulations and tested on a custom built dynamic biaxial testing apparatus to correlate mechanical strain to piezoelectric output correlation.

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