Uncovering the role of free volume in biomaterials and biological matter

Abstract

Uncovering the role of free volume in biomaterials and biological matterDoctoral Thesis by Eneko AxpeSupervised by Fernando Plazaola and Jose Angel GarcíaIn order to understand the role that free volume holes play in several properties of biomaterials (as shape memory polymers for medical applications or scaffolds for tissue engineering) and biological matter (as lipid membranes or living cancer cells), a novel positron annihilation lifetime spectrometer has been designed and fabricated. It has been successfully measured then the free volume hole size and distribution in these materials. This work has been mainly carried out at the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU and in part in two research stays in the University of Oxford in 2014 and 15.