Mimicking the abrasion resistant sandfish epidermis

Vihar, Boštjan; Baumgartner, Werner; Bräunig, Peter

doi:HT018766558

Mimicking the abrasion resistant sandfish epidermis = Nachamung der verschleißresistenten Sandfischhaut

Vihar, Boštjan

2015

Verantwortlichkeitsangabevorgelegt von Boštjan Vihar

ImpressumAachen : Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University 2015

UmfangVIII, 115 S. : Ill., graph Darst.

Aachen, Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2015

Genehmigende Fakultät
Fak01

Hauptberichter/Gutachter
Bräunig, Peter (Thesis advisor) ; Baumgartner, Werner (Thesis advisor)

Tag der mündlichen Prüfung/Habilitation
2015-09-07

Online
URN: urn:nbn:de:hbz:82-rwth-2015-051102
URL: http://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/538206/files/538206.pdf
URL: http://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/538206/files/538206.pdf?subformat=pdfa

Einrichtungen

Inhaltliche Beschreibung (Schlagwörter)
Biowissenschaften, Biologie (frei) ; sandfish (frei) ; Scincus scincus (frei) ; abrasion (frei) ; friction (frei) ; mechanics (frei) ; optics (frei)

Thematische Einordnung (Klassifikation)
DDC: 570

Kurzfassung
Der Sandfisch (Scincus scincus) hat mit seiner verschleißresistenten Haut in letzten Jahren einige Aufmerksamkeit auf sich gelenkt. Obwohl seine Haut ständig scharfen Sandpartikeln ausgesetzt ist, bleibt sie für lange Zeit unbeschädigt. In dieser Arbeit wurde ein Review der bisherigen Untersuchungen durchgeführt und es wurden neue Analysen gestartet um ein besseres Verständniss des Phänomens zu bekommen. Oberflächeneigenschaften wurden untersucht, so wie der chemische Aufbau, Ultrastruktur, Mechanik, aber auch optische und andere Eigenschaften. Zum Schluß wurde eine Hypothese aufgestellt die die gesammelten Daten erklären könnte, es fehlen jedoch weitere Daten um diese zu bestätigen.

The sand inhabiting skink Scincus scincus has due to its sand swimming behaviour gained some attention by the research community in recent years. The sand swimming creates ample stress on the outer layers of its skin, generating the prospect of wear. The skin itself is however very resilient towards abrasion and even facilitates smoother movement by reducing friction against the sharp sand particles. Past research has concentrated much on the characterization of structure and surface properties of the skin, however, a complete understanding of its properties is lacking up to date. In this work, a review of known data is done in addition to new measurements concerning surface properties, composition, ultrastructure and mechanics, but also other feats such as optical properties. Replication of "anti-adhesive" properties on existing technical materials was tested along with the development of new techniques for such endeavour. Chemical and structural analysis shows the epidermis of the sandfish is very homogeneous and is mainly composed of compact bundles of beta keratins, which are possibly interlinked by a matrix composed of alpha keratins. Strong glycosylation of the keratins was shown, confirming previous studies, and five glycan structures were observed in the analysis. The occurrence of glycans could also be linked with the surface properties concerning surface energy and adhesion of the epidermis towards sand. Mechanical properties of the sandfish epidermis were shown to be similar to some artificial polymers which will be interesting for the replication of the sandfish epidermis from artificial materials. The surface micro structure of the sandfish epidermis has been shown to promote diffraction of light. This might suggest possible light trapping or dispersion behaviour, which could not be conclusively confirmed. Finally, we propose a hypothesis on abrasion resistance and friction reduction, which is possibly the result of an interplay between mechanical and chemical properties of both keratins and glycans. However, additional research will be required to confirm the proposed mechanism.

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