Speaker: Ahu Gümrah Dumanli-Parry / University of Manchester

Title: Self-Assemblies Bridging the Length Scales for Biomimetic and Functional Materials

Date/Time: October 23, 2019  /  13.40-14.30

Place: FENS G032

Abstract: Self-assembly can be a useful tool to produce well-defined hierarchical structures and functional materials. An overarching challenge is to bridge the different length scales to transfer the local structures to useful macroscopic materials properties. This talk addresses selected examples thereof using colloids and polymers. Inspired by the striking metallic blue shine on the Pollia Condensata and Margaritaria Nobilis with aligned cellulosic cell walls, we showed controlled self-assembly of cellulose nanocrystals, allow helicoidal-mimetic bulk materials in thin film form with digital coloration. Cellulose derivatives also follow similar ordering and we translated those structures into colorimetric pressure sensors and colorimetric timers. Nanocelluloses also allow porous films towards efficient light scattering media, mimicking white beetles. Our latest work focuses on using cellulosic building blocks together with different plasmonic nanoparticles to explore the production of metamaterials in the visible field as well as smart textiles with structural color. In my talk, I will first give a summary of color formation mechanisms used in Nature and explain how self-assembly and bio-mimicry principles work. The challenges in the scaling up, self-assembly dynamics and material palette will also be discussed.

BIO: Ahu is currently a BP-ICAM Kathleen Lonsdale Research Fellow at the University of Manchester where her research focuses on bio-inspired functional and adaptive materials to develop sensors, smart textiles and bio-polymers for packaging applications with zero-environmental impact.  Ahu completed her masters in Polymer Science and Technology, from the Middle East Technical University. She received her PhD from Sabanci University under supervision of Prof Yuda Yurum where she worked on the rational design of metal catalysts for the synthesis of carbon nanotubes with truly unusual physicochemical traits. From there she moved to the University of Cambridge where she worked in the Macromolecular Materials Laboratory with Prof. Alan Windle. In 2012 she received a Schlumberger  Faculty for Future Research Fellowship to move her studies to Cavendish Laboratories to work under Prof Ulli Steiner, where she develop her research vision on biomimetic and sustainable materials. After a period she spent in Imperial College London as a Teaching Fellow,  in early 2019 she moved to the Department of Materials at the University of Manchester to begin her independent academic career.

Contact: Emre Erdem