Dr Joselito Razal
Qualifications:
PhD Chemistry University of Texas at Dallas.
Research interests:
In IPRI, I am engaged on research activities that involve interfacing carbon nanotubes with biological materials and transforming these into assemblies having properties that are fundamentally interesting and useful for biomedical applications. We are developing a gel-based spinning process to produce electrically conducting bio-inspired carbon nanotube fibres with various compositions and structures as novel alternatives to traditional biomaterials.
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Figure 1. Highly Conducting Carbon Nanotube Bio-Fibres
In the past, I have worked on several areas.
Our team at the NanoTech Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas has spun carbon nanotube fibers having record lengths, tensile strengths, and energy-to-break (toughness). These fibers combine mechanical integrity with a range of electrochemical functionality that enables the fabrication of artificial muscles, and supercapacitor/battery fibers that can be woven into electronic textiles.
Figure 2. Super Tough Carbon Nanotube Fibres
We have also worked on designing novel amphiphilic peptides to non-covalently attach to carbon nanotubes. The control of surface interaction lead to self-assembly of nanostructures potentially useful for biological applications ranging from biosensors that interface with living systems to artificial contractile organelles.
Figure 3: Controlled Assembly of Carbon Nanotubes by Designed Amphiphilic Peptides
More recently, we have designed artificial muscle systems applicable to variety of robotic devices including prosthetics. We made carbon nanotube-based systems that can simultaneously generate electricity from hydrogen and oxygen as fuel cells while contracting like a muscle. We have also designed systems that when powered by the high energy density fuel cell fuels deliver performance that is orders of magnitude higher than that of mammalian skeletal muscle.
Figure 4: Fuel-Powered Artificial Muscle
5 key publications:
1. Fuel Powered Artificial Muscles. Ebron, Von Howard; Yang, Zhiwei; Seyer, Daniel J.; Kozlov, Mikhail E.; Oh, Jiyoung; Xie, Hui; Razal, Joselito; Hall, Lee J.; Ferraris, John P.; MacDiarmid, Alan G.; Baughman, Ray H. Science 2006, 311(5767), 1580-1583
2. Hierarchical self-assembly of peptide-coated carbon nanotubes. Dalton, A. B.; Ortiz-Acevedo, A.; Zorbas, V.; Brunner, E.; Sampson, W. M.; Collins, S.; Razal, J. M.; Yoshida, M. M.; Baughman, R. H.; Draper, R. K.; Musselman, I. H.; Jose-Yacaman, M.; Dieckmann, G. R. Adv Func Mat, 2004, 14(12), 1147-1151. (Cover Page)
3. Continuous carbon nanotube composite fibers: properties, potential applications, and problems. Dalton, A. B.; Collins, S.; Razal, J.; Munoz, E.; Ebron, V. H.; Kim, B. G.; Coleman, J. N.; Ferraris, J. P.; Baughman, R. H. J Mat Chem, 2004, 14(1), 1-3. (Issue Highlight)
4. Super-tough carbon-nanotube fibers. Dalton, A. B.; Collins, S.; Munoz, E.; Razal, J. M.; Ebron, V. H.; Ferraris, J. P.; Coleman, J. N.; Kim, B. G.; Baughman, R. H. Nature, 2003, 423(6941), 703.
5. Controlled Assembly of Carbon Nanotubes by Designed Amphiphilic Peptide Helices. Dieckmann, G. R.; Dalton, A. B.; Johnson, P. A.; Razal, J.; Chen, J.; Giordano, G. M.; Munoz, E.; Musselman, I. H.; Baughman, R. H.; Draper, R. K. J Am Chem Soc, 2003, 125(7), 1770-1777.
email address: jrazal@uow.edu.au
phone number : +61 2 4221 3319
office number: 41A. 268
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