Advance Materials with Aligned Structures by Directional Freezing

Materials are of paramount importance in our daily life and in many areas of modern science and technology. The invention of novel materials makes a great contribution to the UK economy and to world development. This project starts with the preparation of aligned porous materials using the method of directional freezing both from ordinary solutions and compressed carbon dioxide solutions. The use of carbon dioxide is very important for biological applications like cell growth because carbon dioxide is a well-known and well-studied green solvent. The technique will then be extended to produce aligned surface patterns or thin films of biodegradable polymers which will also be used for directing cell growths. The project will also combine and permutate different techniques (e.g., emulsion templating, sol-gel, directional freezing) to prepare porous materials with complex structures. The fundamental study of ice crystal growth and freeze-drying processes will be carried out meantime in order to underpin these synthetic goals. There are many potential applications for these materials. It is proposed in the project that the aligned porous materials will be evaluated as substrates to promote the correct alignment of kidney cell types into functional nephrons, or as nerve guide materials. The research will be undertaken in the Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool. The study of the cell growth will be carried out in collaboration with the School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. This project involves research in a highly exciting and multidisciplinary area. It is closely related to studies involving templated synthesis, porous materials, freeze-drying, nanoparticulate composites, cell growth. The research will receive significant attention from industrial companies in home & personal care, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and microelectronics.