Functional surfaces with special wettability: Design and applications

Functional materials and interfaces play an increasingly important role in biology, biotechnology, personalized medicine, cell biology, stem cell research, drug delivery, microfluidics and tissue engineering. The development of novel functional materials is essential for the progress in these areas. Pavel Levkin and his coworkers focus on the development of biofunctional material systems, dynamic and responsive surfaces and intefaces with special wettability.

The presentation will give an overview of the group's work on porous polymers with controlled surface topography and wettability and will present their developments in the field of bioinspired surfaces and materials possessing special wettabilities, including methods to create bioinspired omniphobic liquid-infused interfaces and superoleophobic surfaces. Finally, Dr. Levkin will discuss the possibility to combine different and even opposing properties in the same surface in order to generate novel functionalities. Applications of patterned slippery liquid-infused surfaces for controlling bacterial biofilms and for controlling droplet movement will be demonstrated.

Pavel Levkin is head of the Biofunctional Materials research group at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. He graduated from the Institute of Fine Chemical Technology, Moscow and obtained his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Tübingen in Germany, followed by postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley. Pavel Levkin is the cofounder of ScreenFect GmbH and Aquarray GmbH. His research focuses on the development of functional and responsive materials, and surfaces for biomedical and biotechnological applications.

Date & time:
June 28, 2019, 11:00 hrs

Venue:
L2|06, Room 100