The demand to develop manufacturing processes that can reliably produce nanostructured materials with functional bioactive properties is growing, and Clarkson University's Silvana Andreescu has received a three-year award from the National Science Foundation to research these technologies.

Andreescu, professor of chemistry and biomolecular science and Egon Matijevic chair, said bioactive nanostructures are needed in a wide range of applications, especially in medical diagnostics and in environmental and food monitoring, such as wearable biosensing devices, flexible bioelectronics, functional contact lenses, environmental filters, smart screens and intelligent packaging.

Bioactive nanostructures are particularly important for the development of low cost devices that have the appropriate detection sensitivity and selectivity for home and point-of-care diagnostics, according to a press release from Clarkson.

Andreescu's research will develop a process for large-scale manufacturing of functional bioactive nanostructures on flexible and inexpensive substrates such as paper and plastic, using printing techniques.

The NSF award will enable the development of a new class of biosensing devices that are easy to use, portable and inexpensive, the release said.

The goal of the project is to gain fundamental understanding of the formation mechanism of hybrid bioactive nanostructures by printing and to use this knowledge to develop scalable production methods for low cost applications, Andreescu said. These methods will allow for the manufacturing of functional devices using a versatile and controllable process.