PDMS Self-Cleaning Parchment

Through the UROP, I was paired with Dr. Wei Lu on Wei Lu Research Lab and helped himm in the designing of a Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) parchment. 

PDMS is a special polymer which, passing a piece of it through a laser, it can change from hydrphobic to hydrophilic, or vice-versa, allowing for really interesting applications in mirofluidics. Dr. Wei Lu envisioned a parchment which, after being used, id est for stopping a bleeding, could simply be stretched and shaken and be completely ridden of any blood residues, thus being able after UV exposition to safely be reused. 

The biggest challenge was to maximize both the retention of substances (just as any bandage), and its later expulsion all of this done with a special solution of iron and dirt. Before I arrived, they were using cylinders, but, since triangles maximize the surface area for any given volume (and circles do the exact opposite), I changed the design ot many acute triangles. After CADing and 3D printing some iterations, I was able to get a 300 % increase in both the expulsion adn retention factors of the PDMS parchment.