Speaker: Mustafa Çulha
Affiliation: Yeditepe University, Turkey
Host: Alexandra Carvalho
Abstract Details: Boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) are considered as structural analogues of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and claimed to be more superior than CNTs since they resist to high temperature and harsh chemical conditions, possess high hydrogen storage capacity and unique electronic properties. Several synthesis methods such as arc-discharge, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or laser ablation using amorphous boron, boric acid, borazine or CNTs as starting materials have recently been reported. However, all these approaches are far from the desired outcomes such as uniformity, low cost and high yield. In our on going effort, the BNNTs were synthesized starting from a commodity boron compound, colemanite, under ammonia atmosphere and iron (III) oxide as catalyst at relatively low temperatures. Figure 1 shows the SEM and TEM images of the BNNTs. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that BNNTs were at uniform structure with 10-30 nm outside diameter and 5-nm-wall-width. The synthesized BNNTs were investigated for their use in medical and biomedical applications such as gene and drug delivery, and tissue scaffolds after their toxicity evaluations. The results show that these nontoxic materials are good candidates for novel medical and biomedical applications as emerging novel materials. The financial support from The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) (Project no: 112M480) is gratefully acknowledged

About The Speaker: Professor Mustafa Culha obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2002. Then, he joined to Advanced Biomedical Research Group as a post-doctoral researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2002-2003) before joining to Schering-Plough Corporation. In 2004, he accepted a faculty position in Genetics and Bioengineering Department of Yeditepe University, Istanbul,Turkey. The utility of spectroscopic techniques such as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) toshed light onto living-nonliving interactions, development of novel detection and diagnostic tools for medical and biomedical applications are ongoing research projects in his laboratories. He authored ofmore than 70 papers in refereed international journals, several book chapters and patents in the area of bioanalytical chemistry, and nanotechnology. He is the editor of a special issue for Surface-enhanced Raman Scattering of Journal of Nanotechnology, and NanoBio special issue for Journal of Nanoparticle Research.He is on the editorial board of Applied Spectroscopy.

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