Photonic crystal biosensors for tissue engineering

Photonic crystal based biosensors are of great interest to researchers because they provide a label-free non-invasive readout, and materials selection can afford biocompatibility towards implantable sensors. The aim of my work is to utilize photonic crystal based biosensors as components of tissue engineering scaffolds to direct cell fate while providing in situ feedback of cell behavior. Porous silicon can be electrochemically etched in ethanolic hydrofluoric acid to produce a range of materials with photonic bandgaps. Different porous silicon photonics including distributed Bragg reflector, rugate filter, microcavity structure and Fano resonance have been explored in my studies. Next, a patterning method has been developed to integrate porous silicon Bragg stacks into a two-dimensional cell culture substrate and the biosensing ability of the Bragg stacks verified through monitoring secretion from live cells in tissue culture. Furthermore, multiple porous silicon rugate filters have been integrated into a three-dimensional tissue-engineering scaffold by using transfer-printing method for in situ enzymatic activity monitoring and therapeutic molecule delivery. To explore other architectures for biosensing, a hydrogel based biosensor has been fabricated by filling biocompatible inverse opal hydrogel with enzyme degradable polymers. Instead of utilizing the swelling of inverse opal backbone, the biosensor takes advantage of the average refractive index change before and after the enzymatic degradation of the infiltrated polymer. Both thin film silicon-based photonic materials and 3D hydrogel photonic materials are biocompatible and can be tuned to display photonic band gap in the near infrared, thereby presenting great opportunities to be used for future tissue engineering applications.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Materials Science & Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2020

Author dc:creator

• Pei, Yi

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kilian, Kristopher
• Braun, Paul
• Leal, Cecilia
• Chen, Qian

• Photonic Crystal
• Tissue Engineering

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2019 Yi Pei

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/106367

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F106367