Date of Award

2012

Degree Name

Chemistry

College

College of Science

Type of Degree

M.S.

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Brian Scott Day

Second Advisor

Eric Blough

Third Advisor

Leslie Frost

Abstract

Recently, the field of bionanotechnology has sought to develop a device containing a biomolecular motor nano-cargo transport system. Among many applications, a device of this sort could be used to sort, purify, or detect specific molecules. In this work, an attempt was made to incorporate the actin-myosin biomolecular motor system into a microfluidic device constructed out of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and glass. Methods for cleaning and functionalizing the glass surface of the device were optimized. After performing actin-myosin motility assays in a variety of PDMS/glass devices, it was determined that the oxygen permeability of PDMS limited the quality of motility that could be obtained upon illumination. Heavy treatment (20 minutes) of the PDMS surface with an air plasma allowed for more prolonged motility. More efforts to reduce the permeability of PDMS and improve motility will have to be made before a functional device can be achieved.

Subject(s)

Nanoelectronics - Equipment and supplies.

Chemistry, Analytic - Equipment and supplies.

Polydimethylsiloxane.

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