Mechanophores as molecular-level force sensors for plastics, proteins, metals, and beyond
Mechanophores have emerged as powerful molecular tools capable of directly indicating mechanical forces within materials through visible changes. However, their general utility has been limited to polymeric materials due to synthetic complexities that typically require the direct polymerization of functional monomers. In this seminar, we present a universal strategy based on Click Chemistry to incorporate force-responsive mechanophores into a broad range of materials. This method has been successfully applied to synthetic polymers, carbohydrates, proteins, and even force-sensing coatings on other metals. Using this facile approach, mechanochromic responses can be detected at strain levels as low as 0.05%, offering sensitivity orders of magnitude higher than previous polymer-based methods, likely due to enhanced strain-concentrating effects. This user-friendly strategy enables the straightforward implementation of mechanophores, paving the way for advanced applications such as 3D force mapping in mechanobiology and real-time force evaluation in coated materials.
Bio: Joshua M. Grolman is an assistant professor at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in the Materials Science and Engineering Department. He received his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016, under the supervision of HHMI Professor Jeffrey S. Moore, working on pH-sensitive polymers, mechanophores, and micropatterned vascular tumor models. He then completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Wyss institute at Harvard Medical School with David J. Mooney, working on using plasticity-controlled polymer networks as a tool to understand mechanotransduction behavior of stem cells dendritic cells. His current research focuses on tissue mechanics driving preterm birth, sustainable materials from coffee waste, and developing next-generation mechanophoric tools to map damage in a wide range of materials.