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Séminaire Chimie ED459 / IEM

Dramatic nano-fluidic properties of carbon nanotube membranes as a platform for protein channel mimetics

Prof. Bruce Hinds (Department of Chemistry and Matererial Engineering, University of Kentucky, USA)

published on

Le Jeudi 30 Juin 2011 à 10h30
Salle de Conférences de l’Institut Européen des Membranes (UM2, bâtiment 39).

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have three key attributes that make them of great interest for novel membrane applications : (1) atomically flat graphite surface allows for ideal fluid slip boundary conditions for 10,000 fold faster fluid flow, (2) the cutting process to open CNTs inherently places functional chemistry at CNT core entrance for gatekeeper activity and (3) CNT are electrically conductive allowing for electrochemical reactions and application of electric fields gradients at CNT tips. These unique properties allow us to explore the hypothesis of producing ‘Gatekeeper’ membranes that mimic natural protein channels. Carbon nanotube membranes were employed as the active element of a switchable transdermal drug delivery device that can facilitate more effective treatments of drug abuse and addiction. Due to the dramatically fast flow through CNT cores, high charge density, and small pore dimensions, highly efficient electro-phoretic pumping through functionalized CNT membrane was achieved. These membranes were integrated with a nicotine formulation to obtain switchable transdermal nicotine delivery rates on human skin (in vitro) switching between high (2.0 μmol/hr-cm2) and low (0.55 μmol/hr-cm2) fluxes that coincide with therapeutic demand levels for nicotine cessation treatment. This technology can help bridge the gap between the physiology and psychology of addiction treatment. Discussed are other applications of CNT protein channel mimetics, for large area robust engineering platforms, including water purification, energy storage, and biochemical separations.

Biosketch

Professor Bruce Hinds has a formal and research-based background in chemistry and electronic device processing. Bachelor studies were in Chemistry at HarveyMuddCollege in California (1991). His PhD work (1996) was on the MOCVD growth of high temperature superconductors at Northwestern University (Tobin Marks). He went on to post-doctoral research at NC State Physics to study the interface states in the Si/SiO2 system (Gerry Lucovsky). He then received an NSF-JSPS fellowship to work with nano-scale fabrication of single electron floating gate memory at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (ShunriOda). In 2001 he joined the faculty of the University of Kentucky to start a research program for functional materials at the nm-scale. In particular, his research group is trying to produce nano-scale materials that can mimic natural process for applications ranging from health care, energy storage/generation and water purification. He has authored 50 papers, has recently received a Presidential Early Career Award (PECASE) award sponsored by NIH and is the William Bryan Professor of Materials Engineering. Publication list can be found at http://www.engr.uky.edu/ bjhinds/publications.

Contact local IEM : Dr. Mihai Barboiu

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