Smart plant protein inside microdevices
Abstract
With the discovery of the plant protein forisome, a novel, smart non-living, ATP-independent biological material became available to the designer of smart materials for advanced actuating and sensing. The in vitro studies show that forisomes (1-3 micron wide and 10-30 micron long) can be repeatedly stimulated to contract and expand anisotropically by shifting either the ambient pH or the ambient calcium ion concentration. We probe the forisome's conformation change inside a microfluidic device with the pH modulation. We demonstrate that the surface properties of the channel wall and the flow condition can influence the anisotropic shape change of forisomes, and their actuation kinetics significantly. This study will provide insights for multifunctional microvalve fabrication inside microdevies.
- Publication:
-
APS Division of Fluid Dynamics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- November 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004APS..DFD.AJ007S