These projects can be undertaken by undergraduate, Honours, MSc and PhD students 

There are 9 projects available listed in no particular order. Main supervisor listed first, followed by co-supervisor.

For more information e-mail Marc or stop by my office (building 18, room 130)

Project 1:   Fibers and Thin Films from Natural Composite Materials

Supervisor: M. in het Panhuis

Natural products such as biopolymers and clays have used in industrial, pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications. These charged materials can either be anionic (negative charge) or cationic (positive charge). One of the most useful features of these materials is their ability to stabilize a wide range of materials (including carbon nanotubes) in aqueous solution.  

Carbon nanotubes can be combined with biopolymers to access their phenomenal electrical and/or mechanical properties. The aims of this Honours project are to process carbon nanotubes with natural products (e.g. biopolymers) into multi-functional materials, e.g. electrically conducting, optically active and transparent, flexible but also mechanically strong fibers and films.

Project 2:   Organising Composite Materials

Supervisor: M. in het Panhuis

Ultimately, the organisation of soft matter is governed by physical principles at various length scales from (sub-) nanometre (intra- and inter-molecular organisation) up to hundreds of nanometres (e.g. phase separation and crystal superstructures). Related to this, and in a much broader context, is the understanding of physical principles associated with the organisation of soft matter. It has been shown that such fundamental principles can be applied to manipulate the nano- and micro-scale organisation of carbon nanotubes and polymers. Therefore there is a need to establish relations between preparation-organisation-properties of carbon nanotube composite materials.  

The overall aim of this Honours project is to investigate the effect of the preparation method on the structural organisation of composite constituents and the overall composite properties. Particular attention will be paid to patterns formed by self-assembly (see figure above).

Project 3:   Inkjet Printing Tissue Engineering Materials

Supervisor: M. in het Panhuis

Inkjet printing is an attractive processing method, as it is an “easy” relatively straightforward fabrication process, after all most of us use these printers on a daily basis for documents, and photos. These printers operate by “drop-on-demand”, ejecting small volume (10^-12 L) droplets of ink from nozzles to create patterns. Hence it is a useful method for deposition of tiny quantities of functional “inks”, where the patterns can be designed to perform electrical, chemical, optical or mechanical functions.

Until recently most approaches in tissue engineering research depended on a single scaffold material that is secondarily populated by cells. Clearly this only allows relatively simple homogeneous structures to be built.

Project 4:   Controlled Release of Hormones

Supervisor: M. in het Panhuis / P. Keller

Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), a 41-amino acid polypeptide accounts for a wide range of stress-related disorders such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders and post-operative stress. CRF-like peptide are under investigation as they are excellent candidates for use as drugs to treat depression. Antalarmin is a non-peptide drug which blocks CRF-receptors and subsequently reduces the release of hormones in response to chronic stress. One the main impediments to their usage is their hydrophobic nature, i.e. they are not easy to dissolve in water.

Hydrogel forming bio-polymers such as gellan gum have been shown to be extremely efficient in stabilizing hydrophobic molecules in water.

The aims of this Honours project are to incorporate hydrophobic molecules such as antalarmin into hydrogels using biopolymers such as gellan gum and xanthan and elucidate antalarmin’s secondary structure as well as their controlled release.

Project 5:   Inkjet Printing Cells

Supervisor: M. in het Panhuis

Inkjet printing is an attractive processing method, as it is an “easy” relatively straightforward fabrication process, after all most of us use these printers on a daily basis for documents, and photos. These printers operate by “drop-on-demand”, ejecting small volume (10^-12 L) droplets of ink from nozzles to create patterns. Related methods such high speed liquid handling methods deposite slightly larger volume (10^-9 L) droplets. These are useful methods for deposition of tiny quantities of functional “inks” into regular patterns (see figure), which can be designed to perform biological, electrical, chemical, optical or mechanical functions.

Until recently most approaches in tissue engineering research depended on a single scaffold material that is secondarily populated by cells. Clearly this only allows relatively simple homogeneous structures to be built.

The overall aims of this Honours project is to deposit cells into regular patterns onto a hydrogel, followed by investigating the assemble of more complex structures by deposition of cells and hydrogel materials.

Project 6: Enhancing Selectivity of Carbon Nanotube Membranes

Supervisors: S. Ralph / M. in het Panhuis

One reason for the paucity of studies into the transport properties of buckypapers is that they generally possess pores that are larger than most molecules of interest, and so are less effective as molecular sieves.  Our aim therefore is to develop methods for reducing the size of pore openings in buckypapers so they only allow molecules with a smaller diameter than that of the pores to be transported.  The method to be investigated involves electrochemical deposition of very thin layers of the electrically conducting polymer polypyrrole onto the surface of the buckypaper. By controlling the length of deposition, it will be possible to also control the amount of polypyrrole introduced onto the CNT surface and the extent to which the diameter of the pore openings are reduced in size.  This approach has been applied previously to track-etched polyester membranes in order to reduce the diameter of their pores from over 250 nm to less than 50nm. It is our hope that this approach will also work with buckypaper membranes to afford a new class of composite materials with a unique combination of properties. The permeability and selectivity of these materials towards a range of small and large molecules will also be investigated.

Project 7:   Nanofiltration using Carbon Nanotube/Biopolymer Membranes

Supervisors: S. Ralph / M. in het Panhuis

We have shown for the first time that it is possible to prepare buckypaper membranes using CNT dispersions prepared using proteins and carbohydrate polymers as the dispersant.  Characterisation of these materials by means of scanning electron microscopy, electrical conductivity and contact angle measurements, mechanical strength testing and Raman spectroscopy is nearing completion.  The next phase of this project will involve preparing larger buckypaper membranes and testing their permeability towards water, small molecules and nanoparticles with different sizes.  Transport experiments will be conducted in collaboration with researchers in Environmental Engineering.  The results of these experiments will be analysed with reference to buckypaper porosity information obtained through nitrogen adsorption/desorption experiments to be performed at ANSTO.

Project 8:   Antimicrobial Properties of Carbon Nanotube Membranes

Supervisors: S. Ralph / M. in het Panhuis

Another interesting property of buckypapers is their ability to simultaneously kill and filter microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses. The bacteriocidal properties of buckypapers arise from the ability of CNTs to be inserted into and damage the pores of bacterial membranes, while the filtration properties are due to the much larger size of bacteria compared to the diameter of the buckypaper pores. To date these properties of CNT buckypapers have only been demonstrated using the bacterium E. coli. This project examine whether these abilities are more generic, by examining the ability of buckypapers to filter and kill a wider range of bacteria of different shapes, sizes and cell wall structure.  In addition, we will explore whether it is possibly to improve the effectiveness of buckypapers for antiseptic microfiltration applications, by incorporating into their structures antibacterial agents such as ciprofloxacin and gramicidin. The resulting materials may act as dual-function bacteriostatic agents, able to kill bacteria both as a result of the ability of CNTs to interfere with bacterial membranes and because of the action of the added antibacterial agent.

Project 9:   DNA Detection for Nanotech Applications

Supervisors: N. Dixon / M. in het Panhuis

Living organisms make proteins that bind tightly and specifically to single- or double-stranded DNA and also to unusual DNA structures like forks, hairpins and quadruplexes. If we were to develop methods for fluorescently tagging such proteins, they could be used to detect the DNA structures that they specifically recognize. In this collaborative project, a student will initially work alongside scientists in the Dixon group to engineer DNA binding proteins so that they can be tagged with fluorescent dyes, and then show that the modified proteins retain their DNA-binding activities by use of SPR and other techniques. Methods will then be explored with Dr in het Panhuis for using the tagged proteins to recognize the presence of particular structures among DNA molecules that have been arrayed in patterns on surfaces by inkjet printing. This will provide proof-in-principle that protein-DNA complexes can be assembled by inkjet printing techniques, setting the scene for use of these methods in novel applications.