Evaluation of bioinspired functional surfaces for nanoparticle filtering

We present the development of a novel integrated device for airborne nanoparticle filtering with bioinspired nanoscale functionality. The underlying idea is to investigate the principle of adherent surfaces, e.g. pollen, as a biological model and transfer this functionality into a technology using functionalized microstructured surfaces. This might offer an efficient filtering method for nanoscale airborne particles without the limitations in gas permeability of conventional filters. We investigated the different pollen species for their structural and biochemical surface properties to achieve bioinspired surface functionality on silicon surfaces. The resulting conical structures have sizes from 4 to 20 μm. Depending on structure sizes, the adhesive properties of the surfaces towards aerosol particles could be directly influenced. The surfaces were tested in a demonstrator setup and the collection efficiency visually determined.