A UL Lafayette researcher has developed a new type of silicone that could someday be used to make stronger and more germ-resistant medical devices.
Dr. Devesh Misra, director of the University’s Institute for Materials Research and Innovation, devised the material using nanotechnology, which is the manipulation of atoms and molecules.
Silicone is widely used in items such as catheters and syringes, and in implants, such as pacemakers. It’s flexible and stretchable, which makes it ideal for joint replacement, but it lacks strength, Misra explained.
“It wears down over time, especially with repeated motion,” he said. He has focused his research on the possible use of the new material for finger-joint reconstruction.
The material he has created is a hybrid of silicone and nanocrystalline titania, a form of titanium dioxide. Nanomaterials are extremely small, about 10,000 times thinner than a human hair.
Not only is the new material stronger than silicone, it may also prevent infection, because bacteria cannot easily grow on it.
Using an electron microscope, Misra compared the growth of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria on traditional silicone to bacterial growth on the hybrid material. “Adding titania to the silicone dramatically reduced the viability of the bacteria, which were about 93 percent less likely to adhere to the hybrid material than to stand-alone silicone,” he said.
Misra is a materials science and engineering professor; he holds the Stuller Endowed Chair in Metallurgy.
Since 2004, he has carried out research projects that have received about $6 million in funding, including four projects funded by the National Science Foundation. He holds five U.S. patents related to materials research.