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Research news
Project Spotlight UWS - New transport fuels from algae
The synthesis of low emission transport fuels is just one of the exciting projects being undertaken by Centre researchers at the University of Western Sydney with CSIRO. The UWS Centre CI, Dr Kamali Kannangara and the researchers Drs Nguyen Tran, Adriyan Milev, Leonito Garciano II and Prof John Bartlett are working with Drs Sue Blackburn, Nick Burke, Tom Beer and Prof Mick Wilson from the CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship, to establish a new hybrid technology for generating transport fuels from algae. The group is exploring new types of non-precious nanocatalysts for upgrading the algae crude oils and to selectively produce diesel fuels, jet fuels and gasoline. This research is supported by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) through its Flagship Collaboration and UWS.
Microalgae such as Botryococcus sp. contains an exceptionally high concentration of crude hydrocarbons (up to 90% of dry weight), and produces non lipid biofuels much closer to conventional petroleum. This research focuses Botryococcus braunii found in lakes and reservoirs in Australia and other parts of the world. It involves modifying how the hydrocarbons – organic compounds needed for the production of oils – break down in the algae (known as cracking). There will be significantly less greenhouse emissions than fossil fuels from biofuels from algae and it may become greenhouse gas neutral if efficient methods of production can be developed, such as using recycled carbon dioxide from other industrial productions. This research aims to contribute to reducing climate change effects and efficiency of Australia’s new energy generation technologies.
The UWS researchers visited CSIRO Microalgae Research Centre in Hobart, Australia. From Left to Right: UWS Dr. Kamali Kannangara, Dr. Adriyan Milev, Dr. Susan Blackburn (Head, CSIRO Microalgae Research), Ms Cathy Johnson (Technical officer, Microalgae Supply Services) and Dr. Nguyen Tran.
Annual conference 2009
The Centres 6th Annual Conference was held in Coffs Harbour earlier in November. Despite flooding waters the days before, all 130 guests arrived safely, including many guests from overseas.
Staff and students from the four universities met to discuss their research, and this conference provided the first opportunity to meet staff from the new Centre partner Deakin University.
Again this year, conference sessions were organised around the five principal research areas of the Centre, including fundamental synthesis techniques, computational nanoscience, environmental technologies, clean energy, and health care. To complement the scientific sessions, a student development session and an industry forum were also held, including valuable talks by senior representatives from G James Glass, Du Pont and Antaria.
international guests
Speakers from the USA, Canada, Asia and Europe enriched the conference and ensured an international and balanced perspective on topics ranging from the global development and governance of nanotechnology to preparation methods of nanocarbons and photocatalysis.
Professors Mihail Roco (USA), Annabella Selloni (USA), Michio Inagaki (Japan), Wonyong Choi (Korea), Serge Kaliaguine (Canada) and Drs Peter Gray (UK) and Karsten Wegner (Switzerland) enriched the plenary and parallel sessions with their expertise and experience.
   
Images: Clockwise from top left: Professors Michio Inagaki, Serge Kaliaguine, Mihail Roco and Annabella Selloni
student prizes
Each year, all students of the Centre are invited to participate in the presentation and poster competition.
Students were assessed by a group of invited speakers and were judged on the layout and structure of their talks or posters, their communication skills, and the ability to address and describe important aspects of their research.
This year prizes were awarded to Mr Leo Ming Hei Lai (UNSW) for his oral presentation on the Electrochemical study of nanostructured electrodes produced with nanoparticle aggregation and Ms Hilda Wiogo (UNSW) talking on Protein stabilisation of magnetite nanoparticles
Three poster awards were given to Ms Roslyn Tedja (UNSW), Mr William Rouesnel (UNSW) and Ms Frances Stahr (UQ)
 
Award winners with Prof Rose Amal.
Top from left: Ms Frances Stahr, Ms Roslyn Tedja, Mr William Rouesnel
Bottom: Mr Leo Ming Hei Lai and Ms Hilda Wiogo
India - Australia link
The Centre has been successful in gaining funding for a second research project under the federal government’s Australia – India Strategy Research Fund as a result of the targeted allocation funding scheme.
The project Nanocomposite Materials for Clean Energy: Energy Generation, Storage, Savings and Safety, led A/Prof. Srikanta Bandyopadhyay at UNSW, aims to develop new nanocomposite materials for catalytic applications in energy generation/storage devices.
This project brings together several groups from Australia and India, including, UNSW, ANU, UQ and Flinders University (Australia) and Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU), Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT-R), Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-Kgp), and Indian Association for Cultivation of Science (IACS) from India.
The project has three sub-projects - Silicon nanocomposites, hybrid metal, carbon and metal Oxides nanocomposites, and polymer nanocomposites.
The collaboration will involve several Centre staff, including Research Director Prof Max Lu, who will lead the second project in collaboration with Prof Aibing Yu (Centre CI from UNSW), Prof Subrata Ray (IIT-R) and Prof Amitava Basumallick (BESU).
Dr Jorge Beltramini (Senior Research Fellow) and Dr Akshat Tanksale (Postdoctoral Research fellow) and a newly appointed PhD student will be actively involved in the project over the three year duration. Dr Beltramini will visit India early 2010 to meet the partners and discuss project planning.
International Workshop on Functional Nanomaterials
To conclude an exciting year of research and success, the Centre hosted the annual International Workshop on Functional Nanomaterials at The University of Queensland. The workshop focused on the development and research of functional nanomaterials, and role in the advancement of technology across the globe.
The workshop brought together Australian and Chinese experts from the fields of chemistry, materials science and related applications, with the main goal to promote international cooperation and partnership between world leaders in chemistry and engineering.
The topics of this year’s workshop included
Functional nanomaterials for health care and biotechnology
Functional nanomaterials for emerging energy and environmental technologies
Multifunctional nanomaterials platforms
Smart functional nanomaterials
Computational functional nanomaterials
Awards and fellowships
Research Excellence Award
Centre Senior Research fellow Dr Gordon Xu has received a University of Queensland Research Excellence Award of $75,000 for his project on safe, efficient and site-specific delivery of drugs or genes. Dr Xu’s research spans the boundaries of chemistry and biology, by combining novel nanomaterials with biomolecules to enable gene and drug delivery. His research forms part of the Centre’s focus on health care applications of nanomaterials.
Dr Xu said nanocoating layered double hydroxide nanoparticles with a porous silica, and conjugating this with biomolecules, would enable delivery of large amounts of therapeutics to specific disease sites.
“Delivering drugs or genes requires the nanoparticle to evade the body’s immune defences, recognise and attach to the specific cell, cross the cell membrane, and localise to the subcellular site of action or migrate to perinuclear area for further entrance into the nucleus.”
According to Dr Xu, the key to this project are the unique properties of the hybrid nanoparticles. The layered double hydroxide (LDH) is able to carry large amounts of therapeutic agent, while the coated porous silica can be readily modified for targeted delivery of the therapeutic payload to specific cells in the body.
“To be an effective delivery system, the nanoparticle must be a suitable carrier and readily transported through various biological barriers to the site of action,” he said. By functionalising the porous silica coating and binding targeting biomolecules such as antibodies, folic acid or peptides, we hope to deliver therapeutics specifically to the disease site.”
Centre researchers
receive Future Fellowships
Two Centre senior researchers have been awarded ARC Future Fellowships. These new fellowships aim to promote research in areas of critical national importance by giving outstanding researchers incentives to conduct their research in Australia.
Professor Justin Gooding (Program Leader and CI) received a five year fellowship for his research into electrodes to enhance the performance of implantable devices such as pacemakers, bionic eyes, cochlear implants and biosensors.
Electrodes are the critical element of stimulating implantable devices such as cardiac pacemakers, bionic eyes and cochlear implants. However, in all these applications of electrodes in biology there has never been a solution to stopping unwanted adsorption of biological material onto the electrode that does not dramatically decrease electrode performance. The research in Prof Gooding’s project will finally provide a solution to this.
Long time Centre associate Professor Michael Yu will return to the centre on a permanent basis in 2010 to take up his future fellowship. His research will concentrate on providing high efficiency separation and purification for viruses and DNA, important in modern gene engineering for the treatment of genetic and acquired diseases. Through this project, novel macroporous materials will be fabricated with unique structures and properties compared to conventional macroporous materials.
Deans award for thesis
Dr Akshat Tanksale (Centre post-doctoral fellow) has received the UQ graduate school Dean’s award for Outstanding Research Higher Degree Thesis, for his PhD Thesis Nanostructured Catalysts for H2 Production by Aqueous Phase Reforming of Sugars, which he completed with the Centre in 2008.
Less than 10% of UQ MPhil and PhD graduates get this award each year, which gives formal recognition to those few PhD and MPhil graduates who receive unanimously outstanding reports from their assessors’ which commend them on making genuine and substantial contributions to their field of research.
Upcoming Events
The 1st Australian Workshop on Photocatalysis: Fundamentals and Applications
The workshop will encompass a series of keynote presentations from distinguished researchers and will cover topics on photocatalysis including: (1) photocatalyst development - synthesis, characterization, and doping; (2) photodegradation reactions and mechanisms; and (3) photocatalytic applications - air and water treatment, catalysts and processes utilising solar light. Poster presentations will complement the oral presentations.
The call for expressions of interest and abstracts is NOW OPEN. Please submit your abstract electronically along with the registration form to r.amal@unsw.edu.au or Mandalena@unsw.edu.au or fax to: (02) 9385 5966.
The abstract should be no more than one A4 page in length with 5 keywords best describing your research (e.g. synthesis, characterization, water treatment, organic, mechanism).
For more details, please contact: r.amal@unsw.edu.au and for regular updates on the workshop, please visit http://www.pcrg.unsw.edu.au/events/photocatalyst
General
Changes to Centre Directorship
In September 2009, The ARC approved the appointment of Professor Rose Amal as the new Centre Director.
Professor Max Lu will continue as the Research Director.
Newsletter Nanomatters is also available as an email edition or online at the Centre’s website www.arccfn.org.au. To register for our email editions, please email Paulette Baumgartl at p.baumgartl@uq.edu.au
Website The Centre’s website (arccfn.org.au) contains information on the Centre’s aims, governance, research activities, publications, news items and interesting links. All current and past newsletters and annual reports are also available to download from the site.
Contacts
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Centre Head Office
Ms Celestien Warnaar
ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials
Level 5 West, AIBN
Cnr College and Cooper Roads
The University of Queensland
Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
t: (+61) 7 3346 3883
f: (+61) 7 3346 3973
e: c.warnaar@uq.edu.au
www.arccfn.org.au |
NSW/ACT Node
Professor Rose Amal
(Centre Director)
ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials
School of Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry
The University of New South Wales
Sydney, NSW, 2052
t: (+61) 2 9385 4361
f: (+61) 2 9385 5996
e: r.amal@unsw.edu.au
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