Self-assembly V: nanofibers appear at the scene of the crime

Filed in archive Materials on January 31, 2006

Fingerprints, Super Glue and tortellini may sound like an odd mix of characters, especially for a report published in The Royal Society of Chemistry journal, Chemical Communications. But they each play a part in a detective story come to life in a nanotech lab that has led to a new process for producing nanofibers.

One day, it seems, a researcher at Penn State left his fingerprints on a piece of lab equipment that had been secured to a tabletop using Super Glue. Not long after, the research team was perplexed to find nanofibers growing where the prints had been left. Recognizing that Super Glue contains cyanoacrylate, a material also used in liquid sutures and experimental cancer treatment, they began to experiment.

Soon they had perfected a method for producing nanofibers between 200-250-nanometers in diameter and hundreds of microns long. Their results were achieved by mixing the linoleic acid found on fingers and several other ingredients and exposing the mix to "cyanoacrylate fuming", the same process used at crime scenes to dust for fingerprints.

"The new technique is so versatile," says Dr. Henry C. Foley, professor of chemical engineering who directed the project, "that it allows us not only to make nano-scale fibers but also nano-sized flat sheets, spheres and even wrinkled sheets that look tortellini-like."

"Our findings open up a whole new world of opportunity for control of nanoscale structures through chemistry via catalysis," he concludes. It's an opportunity the Penn State team hopes will lead to uses in advanced filtration, wound care, drug delivery, bioassays and other medical applications.