Project Title: Green synthesis of novel nanocomposites for biomedical applications

Project Description:

In recent years, there has been increasing application of hydrogel based polymer nanocomposites in biomedical field, such as wound dressings, bone cements, tissue scaffolds, as well as cancer treatment. Nanocomposites combining hydrogel and multi-functional nanoparticles (NPs) have received particular attention, e.g. hydrogel incorporating gold or magnetic iron oxide NPs have been proposed for multi-modality cancer therapies (trauma sensing, pulsed drug delivery, bio-imaging, and hyperthermia).

In previous approaches the hydrogel based nanocomposites have been obtained by sequential mixing of pre-synthesized NPs with hydrogels. These conventional synthesis approaches of NPs are predominantly by chemical reduction (e.g. AuNPs), alkaline precipitation in water, water-in-oil microemulsion, and thermal decomposition (e.g. iron oxide NPs). These methods mostly require harsh chemicals and elevated temperature, and suffer from large NP size distribution, surface contamination by surfactants and toxicity of the organic residues, which present major challenges (limited functionality and potential safety issue) towards clinical applications. In addition, the critical element of a successful nanocomposite - controlled microstructure (NP and matrix) and long term stability (dispersion) is yet to be achieved.

The aim of the proposed project is to develop new knowledge and expertise on a chemical-free in situ green-synthesis composite technology. The project is in collaboration with School of Pharmacy and is supported by a UK leading biomedical company for the development of the novel techniques and materials. The student will have the opportunities to be trained on a wide range of state of the art material synthesis and characterization facilities and the outcome of the proposed project will be NP/hydrogel bio-nanocomposites with low toxicity, high stability and multi-functionality and these materials may demonstrate their potential capability particularly in anti-microbial applications well as other areas such as tissue engineering and drug delivery. Other planned output include conferences presentations and journal publications.


First/Lead Supervisor and their contact details:         Dr Dan Sun, d.sun@qub.ac.uk

Second Supervisor and their contact details:                 Prof Fraser Buchanan, f.buchanan@qub.ac.uk     
                                                                               Prof Brendan Gilmore, b.gilmore@qub.ac.uk

貝爾法斯特女王大學（Queen's University Belfast）于1845年由維多利亞女王建校，因此為女王大學。為英國頂尖名校，全球百強名校。是一所享譽歐洲的公立頂級研究型大學，該校擁有全英國和愛爾蘭頂級醫(yī)學院和工程學院，該校的醫(yī)學院，商學院，工學院以及管理學院也都在全愛爾蘭名列前茅。該大學位于英國的北愛爾蘭首府貝爾法斯特，其教研歷史悠久，學術成就昭著，是英國和愛爾蘭歷史最悠久的大學之一，并且也是英國著名的常青藤名校羅素集團大學成員之一。
（https://baike.baidu.com/link?url ... ffxyY6DZ_qrSWrVS8hj）

貝爾法斯特女王大學機械與航空航天學院官網，相關招聘信息詳見網站。
https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/Sc ... rospaceEngineering/
有意愿者可直接發(fā)郵件至導師郵箱咨詢，一導，二導，三導均可。（建議直接聯系一導）

導師簡介
Dr Dan Sun, d.sun@qub.ac.uk
https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/Sc ... emicStaff/DrDanSun/

Prof Fraser Buchanan, f.buchanan@qub.ac.uk   
https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/Sc ... ProfFraserBuchanan/

Prof Brendan Gilmore, b.gilmore@qub.ac.uk 返回小木蟲查看更多