Marc in het Panhuis

Research Interests

Information on the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute

Want to hear me speak about my research? I am giving invited keynote presentations on inkjet printing and polymer composites at the following conferences:

ICONN 2008, 25-29 February 2008, Melbourne, Australia

Chem-on-Tubes, 6-9 April 2008, Zaragoza, Spain

Trends in Nanotechnology 2008, 1-5 September 2008, Oviedo, Spain

Multi-functional and Intelligent Materials based on surfactants, polymers and carbon nanotubes

My research focuses on synthesis, characterisation and applications of composite materials with enhanced properties. These composite materials are fabricated using surface active molecules, synthetic and bio-polymers. Fabrication methods for composite materials include (but are not limited to) functionalisation, intercalation and in-situ polymerisation. Solution based approaches such as inkjet printing are used to process these materials for applications (see photo below). Current applications under investigation range from conducting textiles to optically active films and flexible transparent films for sensors. 

Optical active and conducting composite materials

An interesting aspect of polyaniline is its ability to become optically active through the addition of chiral dopants such as camphorsulfonic acid (CSA). The optical activity is thought to arise from adoption of either a one-handed helical conformation or a helical packing of polymer chains. In-situ polymerisation of aniline in the presence of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and chiral agents provides a route to optically active and electrically conducting composite materials. It is thought that chiral materials can be used as chiral films or membranes in the production of enantiomerically pure compounds.

Carbon nanotube networks

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) possess many unique electronic and mechanical properties that make them highly versatile and of great interest to researchers from a wide range of scientific disciplines. One of the key challenges is processing or engineering CNT for potential applications such as electronic components or coatings. The routes available to engineering single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) into networks with electrical and mechanical properties involve (but are not limited to) direct growth (onto a substrate) and solution based processing such as inkjet printing.

More information on intelligent materials and carbon nanotubes

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

Current Students

PhD:

William Small (based at University of Hull, U.K.) Synthesis and characterisation of polyaniline carbon nanotube composites

Alberto Granero Polyion complex fibres

Charles Mire Inkjet printing cells and scaffolds

Luke Sweetman Carbon nanotube membranes

Khairul Anuar Multi-sensor platforms

Honours:

Cameron Ferris Reactive inkjet printing

Shane Ellis Interfacing inkjet printing with DESI mass spectrometry

Jenny Boge Carbon nanotube membranes

Nick Payne Inkjet printed batteries

Visiting PhD students

Naratip Songmee (visiting PhD student from Chiang Mai University, Thailand)
Inkjet printing of hybrid nanostructures

Pablo Manero (visiting PhD student from Instituto de Carboquimica, Spain)
Functional nano-inks

Suggested Topics for Future Students

• 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

Abbreviated CV

• Chemical Engineering degree from University of Twente, the Netherlands

• Ph.D. in Physics from University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland

• Postdoctoral research at UMIST (now University of Manchester), United Kingdom

• Research Scientist, Media Lab Europe, Dublin, Ireland

• Faculty positions at University of Dublin (Ireland), University of Texas at Dallas (U.S.A.) and University of Hull (U.K.)

Current position
Senior Lecturer

Last reviewed: 18 July, 2008