Lab for Biological, Biomimetic, Eco-friendly Materials (친환경 생체모사 재료 연구실)

Biological materials are natural materials that are produced by living organisms. Biological materials have developed to fit the purpose of living organisms and optimized for numerous years. Especially, intermolecular interactions between the materials interfaces play a pivot role for biological materials assembly. An apparatus most often used for direct measurements of the forces between two interfaces is the surface forces apparatus (SFA). The SFA is an instrument that measures the magnitude and distance of the intermolecular forces between two surfaces by approaching, retracting, or shearing from one another. Biofouling is about of how living organisms in water attach to wet-substrates at different length and time scales. Anti-fouling is the process of removing the accumulation, or preventing their accumulation. Biocides containing Tributyltin (TBT) and Cupper had been widely used as anti-fouling agent but the international maritime community has recognized serious side-effects of the biocides and forbidden use of them as an anti-fouling agent. Therefore, new environmentally friendly and economical anti-fouling strategies should be developed. Recently, many research groups in the world try to invent an anti-fouling materials via bio-mimicking. We seek to understand the fundamentals of biofouling and antifouling phenomena in nature and try to find unrevealed insights to design novel anti-fouling agent via biomimetic approaches. The insights is going to be utilized in Ocean Macroalgal Afforestation (OMA), developments in antifouling paints for ships, and developments in antifouling coating for membrane filtrations. 연구실 진학을 위한 인턴십 혹은 연구원 생활에 관심이 있는 분들은 주저하지 말고 아래 메일로 연락 바랍니다.