Events

Prof. Vladimir Tsukruk, Engineered Bionanocomposites

Prof. Vladimir Tsukruk

Date: Wednesday 3 July 2013 15:00 - 16:00

Location: The People's Palace - PP2

Prof. Vladimir Tsukruk, School of Materials Science and Engineering and BIONIC Center, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA

I discuss recent results from our research group on designing highly permeable but robust nanoscale multilayered materials for responsive microcapsules, conformal cell protection, and ultrastrong biocomposites.
Ultrathin shells from synthetic and natural materials are assembled in order to conduct surface modification and protection of model microparticles, cells and cell assemblies. Shells designed here were formed through a layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly based upon hydrogen-bonding, ion pairing, and hydrophobic-hydrophobic interactions and tuned by pH or light. These LbL
shells can be reinforced via physical or covalent crosslinking or inducing local crystallization. Micromechanical properties as can be tested with surface force spectroscopy, bulging, and buckling tests. These soft shells are further exploited to control and tune the fractal morphology, permeability, biodegradability, and compliance of the LbL shells. Finally, ultra strong bionanocomposites from silk and graphene oxide components with unique interphase morphology were found to possess extremely high elastic modulus and toughness.


SEMS/IoB Seminar Series
Coffee/tea/biscuits provided after the seminar