SBIR-STTR Award

Bio-Inspired Dry Fibrillar Adhesives for Enhanced Sealing of Respiratory Protective Masks
Award last edited on: 11/25/2011

Sponsored Program
SBIR
Awarding Agency
DOD : CBD
Total Award Amount
$849,998
Award Phase
2
Solicitation Topic Code
CBD09-102
Principal Investigator
Burak Aksak

Company Information

nanoGriptech LLC

91 43rd Street Suite 200
Pittsburgh, PA 15201
   (412) 224-2136
   engineering@nanogriptech.com
   www.nanogriptech.com
Location: Single
Congr. District: 18
County: Allegheny

Phase I

Contract Number: ----------
Start Date: ----    Completed: ----
Phase I year
2009
Phase I Amount
$100,000
NanoGriptech LLC proposes to develop repeatable skin adhesives using technology inspired by the feet of geckos and insects. These adhesives will be integrated into full facemask respirators to reduce or replace head harness straps, which are currently used to hold the facemasks in place. Expected benefits are improved fit, resistance to shifting, improved sealing, and reduced discomfort and tissue damage during prolonged use. A model of the interface between skin and the micro-fibrillar adhesive will be developed to aid in the design and optimization of adhesive design. The proposed effort aims to combine and optimize various fibrillar adhesive technologies into a single system, which exhibits many or all of the unique characteristics of the separate base technologies. Potential technologies that may be incorporated into the final design include tip shapes, directional properties, bio-inspired tip coatings, and hierarchical multi-level geometry. In Phase I of this program we plan to determine required performance metrics for the tissue adhesives, develop a theoretical model of the interactions between the skin surface and adhesive, confirm model validity with characterization experiments, and identify key parameters for designing the adhesives.

Keywords:
Bio-Inspiration, Fibrillar Adhesives, Gecko, Sealing, Respiratory Protective Mask, Fiber Mechanics Modeling, Polymer Materials

Phase II

Contract Number: ----------
Start Date: ----    Completed: ----
Phase II year
2011
Phase II Amount
$749,998
NanoGripTech LLC proposes to develop repeatable skin adhesives using technology inspired by the feet of geckos and insects. These adhesives will be integrated into full facemask respirators to reduce or replace head harness straps, which are currently used to hold the facemasks in place. Expected benefits are improved fit, resistance to shifting, improved sealing, and reduced discomfort and tissue damage during prolonged use. A model of the interface between skin and the micro-fibrillar adhesive will be developed to aid in the design and optimization of adhesive design. The proposed effort aims to combine and optimize various fibrillar adhesive technologies into a single system, which exhibits many or all of the unique characteristics of the separate base technologies. Potential technologies that may be incorporated into the final design include tip shapes, directional properties, bio-inspired tip coatings, and hierarchical multi-level geometry. In Phase II of this program we plan to develop a design tool for optimized fiber adhesives, manufacture such optimized fiber adhesives in patches, integrate them to facemasks, and test their sealing and adhesion performance in real world conditions.

Keywords:
Bio-Inspiration, Fibrillar Adhesives, Gecko, Sealing, Respiratory Protective Mask, Fiber Mechanics Modeling