Programing stimuli-responsiveness of gelatin with electron beams: basic effects and development of a hydration-controlled biocompatible demonstrator

Biomimetic materials with programmable stimuli responsiveness constitute a highly attractive material class for building bioactuators, sensors and active control elements in future biomedical applications. With this background, we demonstrate how energetic electron beams can be utilized to construct tailored stimuli responsive actuators for biomedical applications. Composed of collagen-derived gelatin, they reveal a mechanical response to hydration and changes in pH-value and ion concentration, while maintaining their excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability. While this is explicitly demonstrated by systematic characterizing an electron-beam synthesized gelatin-based actuator of cantilever geometry, the underlying materials processes are also discussed, based on the fundamental physical and chemical principles. When applied within classical electron beam lithography systems, these findings pave the way for a novel class of highly versatile integrated bioactuators from micro- to macroscales.