Sebastian Bauer

We generated, on titanium surfaces, self-assembled layers of vertically oriented TiO2 nanotubes with defined diameters between 15 and 100 nm and show that adhesion, spreading, growth, and differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells are critically dependent on the tube diameter. A spacing less than 30 nm with a maximum at 15 nm provided an effective length scale for accelerated integrin clustering/focal contact formation and strongly enhances cellular activities compared to smooth TiO2 surfaces. Cell adhesion and spreading were severely impaired on nanotube layers with a tube diameter larger than 50 nm, resulting in dramatically reduced cellular activity and a high extent of programmed cell death. Thus, on a TiO2 nanotube surface, a lateral spacing geometry with openings of 30-50 nm represents a critical borderline for cell fate.

Through the use of high-throughput methods, solvothermal reactions of FeCl 3 and 2-aminoterephthalic acid in protic as well as aprotic reaction media were systematically studied. Thus, the fields of formation of the isoreticular structures of MIL-53, MIL-88, and MIL-101 based on Fe(III) and aminoterephthalate could be identified for the first time. The resulting 3D framework materials with amino-functionalized pores have been characterized using X-ray diffraction; IR spectroscopy; and thermogravimetric, elemental, and energy dispersive X-ray analysis. Due to the applied high-throughput method, a high density of information was obtained in a short period of time, which allows the extraction of important reaction trends and contributes to a better understanding of the role of compositional as well as process parameters in the synthesis of inorganic-organic hybrid materials. We have found that the nature of the reaction medium has the most profound impact on structure formation. Furthermore, the concentration of the starting mixture (i.e., the solvent content) and the temperature have also been identified as key parameters for the formation of the different hybrid phases.

Using aligned TiO2 nanotubes with different diameters in the range between 15 and 100 nm synthesized on titanium by an electrochemical approach, it is shown that 15 nm is a universal surface geometric constant that promotes cell adhesion, proliferation, migration, and differentiation of different cell types (such as mesenchymal stem cells and hematopoietic stem cells; see image).

Amphiphilic TiO(2) nanotube arrays are fabricated by a two-step anodization procedure combined with hydrophobic monolayer modification after the first step. These tubes can be used as biomolecular carriers, where the outer hydrophobic barrier provides an efficient cap against drug leaching to the environment. By utilizing the photocatalytic ability of TiO(2), a precisely controlled removal of the cap and a highly controlled release of the hydrophilic payload (drug) can be achieved.