Thu. Mar 28th, 2024
Credit: Birgitt Boschitsch Stogin and Tak-Sing Wong/ Penn State

A team of mechanical engineers from Penn State have developed a self-healing membrane that can act as a reverse filter by blocking small particles and allowing large ones to go through. “Conventional filters, like those used to make coffee, allow small objects to pass through while keeping larger objects contained,” said Birgitt Boschitsch, a graduate student of mechanical engineering at Penn State.

Boschitsch and the research team, though, developed the exact opposite, a stabilized liquid material that can screen out smaller objects while letting the larger ones to pass through. The research was published recently in the journal Science Advances.

The team decided to experiment with liquids for their unique properties.”If you put your finger in a glass of water and take it out, the water’s surface self-heals,” explained Tak-Sing Wong, who is the Wormley Family Early Career Professor and assistant professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering.

The newly developed filter performs the same task, but unlike most conventional filters, this filter does not separate objects by their size. It responds to the object’s kinetic, or movement, energy instead. “Typically, a smaller object is associated with lower kinetic energy due to its smaller mass,” Wong said. “So, the larger object with a higher kinetic energy will pass through the membrane, while the smaller object with lower kinetic energy will be retained.”

The membrane can wrap itself around the object as it passes through it, which makes it possible for the membrane to completely self heal over the top of the object that passes through it.

The research team thinks that the membrane can have any number of creative, real world applications. For instance, if doctors need to perform open surgery without a clean operating room, which usually happens in remote areas or on military battlefields, the membrane can then act as a surgical film that can give the doctors a sort of pseudo clean environment to safely operate.

Not only that, the membrane works as a particle barrier, and its self-healing properties would also let medical devices such as surgical tools to pass through while keeping the contaminants out. “The membrane filter could potentially prevent germs, dust or allergens from reaching an open wound, while still allowing a doctor to perform surgery safely,” Wong said. “This membrane could make this possible.”

By Purnima

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