Marc in het Panhuis

Position: Senior Lecturer, Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Coordinator Nano technology Degree Program

Room: 18.130

Phone No: +61 2 42 21 3155

E-mail: panhuis@uow.edu.au

Research Interests

Information on my research group, the Soft Materials Group

Information on the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science

Information on the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute

Dr in het Panhuis has made a major contribution to the field of carbon nanotube materials since entering the field in 2000 after graduating with a PhD in 1999. His research has focussed on the fabrication, characterisation and exploitation of a remarkable group of multifunctional, stimuli-responsive composite materials based on combinations of carbon nanotubes, organic conducting polymers and more recently bio-polymers. Since moving to Australia in 2006, soft, conducting and biocompatible materials have become an increasingly important feature of his work. Soft materials is now the main topic of research for six of the eight PhD students currently supervised or co-supervised by in het Panhuis.

Internationally, in het Panhuis is recognised as an expert in stabilizing carbon nanotubes in solution and understanding the interactions which govern this. A thread connecting elements of in het Panhuis’ research has been the use of solution-based fabrication methods (such as inkjet printing) for processing CNTs into electrically conducting materials.

He has published key findings in this area in recent years. For example:

• Studies into adsorption of polymers onto, and functionalisation of the nanotube surface led to the development of protocols for stabilizing CNTs in aqueous and organic solvents using a conjugated polymer, cyclodextrin, and a ruthenium complex which led to the first demonstration of interconnected multi-walled CNTs.

• He was the first to adapt a liquid handling tool for use as a processing method for organising CNTs into networks configured as the channels of field effect transistor devices.

• He was one of the first researchers to adapt inkjet printing for processing water-dispersable polymer-CNT composite materials into transparent conducting films displaying electrochromic behaviour and volatile organic compound sensors, leading to 2 patents.

• Understanding the gelation process of biopolymers has enabled the fabrication of conducting gel-CNT thin films and gel-CNT fibres through polyelectrolyte complexation.

He recently demonstrated the critical CNT concentration (1.3%) needed to achieve electrical conductivity in a biocompatible gellan gum hydrogel and showed that cell behaviour was influenced by hydrogel elasticity and the incorporation of surface topographical features.

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Representative Publications

M. in het Panhuis, A. Heurtematte, W.R. Small, and V.N. Paunov, ‘Inkjet printed water sensitive transparent films from natural gum - carbon nanotube composites’, Soft Matter 3, 840-843 (2007).

W.R. Small and M. in het Panhuis, ‘Inkjet Printing of Transparent, Electrically Conducting Single-wall Carbon Nanotube Composites’, Small 3, 1500-1503 (2007).

W.R. Small, F. Masdarolomoor, G.G. Wallace, and M. in het Panhuis, ‘Inkjet deposition and characterisation of transparent conducting electroactive polyaniline composite films with high carbon nanotube loading fraction.’, Journal of Materials Chemistry 17, 4359-4361 (2007).

M. in het Panhuis, ‘Carbon nanotubes: enhancing the polymer building blocks for intelligent materials’, Journal of Materials Chemistry 16, 3598-3605 (2006).

M. in het Panhuis, R. Sainz, P.C. Innis, L.A.P. Kane-Maguire, A.M. Benito, T.M. Martínez, S.E. Moulton, G.G. Wallace, and W.K. Maser, ‘An optically active polymer carbon nanotube composite’, Journal of Physical Chemistry B 109, 22725-22729 (2005).

M. in het Panhuis, S. Gowrisanker, D.J. Vanesko, C.A. Mire, H. Jia, H. Xie, R.H. Baughman, I.H. Musselman, B.E. Gnade, G.R. Dieckmann and R.K. Draper, ‘Nanotube network transistors from peptide-wrapped single-walled carbon nanotubes’, Small 1, 820-823 (2005).

R. Gupta, R.E. Smallcup and M. in het Panhuis, ‘Reversible transport characteristics of multi-walled carbon nanotubes in free space’, Nanotechnology 16, 1707-1711 (2005).

G. Chambers, C. Carroll, G.F. Farrell, A.B. Dalton, M. McNamara, E. Cummins, M. in het Panhuis, and H.J. Byrne, ‘Characterisation of the interaction between γ-cyclodextrin and single wall carbon nanotubes’, Nano Letters 3, 843-846 (2003)

M. in het Panhuis, 'Vaccine delivery with carbon nanotubes', Chemistry and Biology 10, 897-898 (2003).

M. in het Panhuis, R.W. Munn, P.L.A. Popelier, J.N. Coleman, B. Foley, and W.J. Blau, ‘Distributed response analysis of conductive behaviour in single molecules’, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences USA 99, 6514 – 6517  (2002).

F. Frehill, J.G. Vos, S. Benrezzak, A. Koos, Z. Konya, M. Rüther, W.J. Blau, A. Fonseca, J.B. Nagy, L.P. Biro, A.I. Minett and M. in het Panhuis, ‘Interconnecting carbon nanotubes with an inorganic metal complex’, Journal of the American Chemical Society 124, 13694-13695 (2002).        

Click here for full publication list

Fellows

Professor Paul Calvert (ARC International Fellow, University of Massachusetts Darthmouth, USA

Research Fellow:

Dr Don McCallum

Current Students

PhD:

Alberto Granero Polyion complex fibres

Charles Mire Inkjet printing cells and scaffolds

Luke Sweetman Carbon nanotube membranes

Khairul Anuar Mat Amin Multi-sensor platforms

Ali Aldalbahi Polymer carbon nanotube composites

Ahmed Al-Shahrani Developing composite membranes for desalination

Cameron Ferris Tissue engineering materials

Shane Ellis Marrying inkjet printing with mass spectrometry

Honours:

Tom Higgins

Nick Whiteside

Visitors:

Holly Warren (Trinity College, Dublin)

Suggested Topics for Future Students

Information for Honours and PhD Projects

    • Synthesis and properties of optical active polymer carbon nanotube composites

    • Flexible & transparent carbon nanotube networks for sensing application

    • Transport properties of nanostructures

    • Electronic/smart textile materials

    • Inkjet printing of composite materials

    • Evaporation behaviour of surfactant & carbon nanotube solutions

    • Inkjet printing of cells

    • Reactive inkjet printing

    • Carbon nanotube membranes

    • Anti-bacterial coatings

    • Bio-scaffold materials

Abbreviated CV

Chemical Engineeer, University of Twente (Netherlands)

PhD (Physics), Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)

Senior Lecturer, UOW

ARC Future Fellow, UOW

Last reviewed: 8 October, 2009