Their practical uses range from hightech foams for insulation, all the way to delivering medicines in cancer patients.
They are polymers, or more simply named, plastics, and they are revolutionizing both the industrial and medical worlds.
Researchers of Ohio State’s vast engineering and biomedical facilities have teamed up to improve existing microscale technologies, like styrofoam and prescription drugs, as well as developing new technologies, like artificial tissue engineering for burn patients or bypass surgery. Ohio ranks second in the nation for polymer industries and research.
With materials such as foams or plastic automotive and aerospace parts, “We want to use nanoscale technology to improve traditional microscale products,” said L. James Lee, professor in the department of chemical engineering. “We are improving a product’s efficiency by using less material — it is stronger and lighter and cheaper.”
This seeming paradox is achieved through the ability of scientists to manipulate these materials at the atomic, or nano level. The ability to create increasingly smaller devices with precision has enabled researchers at OSU to develop “not necessarily unique but much better final products,” Lee said.
Other applications for nano-technology and polymers are in the biomedical field. Nano-technology was originally discovered 20 years ago by Andreas Von Recum, now associate dean of the veterinary school of medicine at OSU.
“Living tissue cells in culture respond to nano-sized polymer structures,” said Derek Hansford, assistant professor of biomedical engineering.
“We’re trying to develop new ways to treat burn patients and patients undergoing bypass surgery,” Hansford said. “Diseases can be treated by replacing damaged tissue with manufactured cells. Still, there needs to be more research for this to become a viable medical technique.”
Hansford and his associates are also involved in new medicines. Traditionally, medicine has been on a microscale, as in the contents of an ingestable pill such as Aspirin. With the advent of nanoscale technology, medicine can now be delivered at the site of the problem: such as a cancer growth, with the development of polymer scaffoldings.
“Lots of drugs have been developed that work well but have to be at the site of the cells in order to work effectively. Microscopic medicines only flow through the bloodstream. Nanolevel medicines can enter the tissue itself and attach to the cell that needs repairing,” Hansford said.
Polymers can also be used for diagnosing patients faster and more efficiently.
“It’s a 15-minute procedure that uses less testing materials, like blood or urine, to get a very cheap, accurate and disposable reading,” said Kurt Koelling, associate professor of chemical engineering.
“Normally, microscopic diagnosis tests are shipped out of a hospital and the results are delayed for a couple of days,” he said. “This is a nanoscopic technology that is available at the point of care using a device very similar in shape and function to that of an ordinary compact disc,” Koelling said.
Koelling said the prominence of polymers may lead the state to become a “polymer valley.”
