Design magnetoelectric nanoparticles with outstanding physical property for biomedical applications

Magnetoelectric nanoparticles (MENP) are multiferroic materials with magnetic and electric properties coupled together. The coupling allows direct control of ferroelectricity using an external magnetic field or vice-versa. [1] Among the several types of MENP, nanoparticles made up of a magnetic core and ferroelectric shell have gained significant interest in recent years due to the large ME effect. [2] Upon application of an external magnetic field, the magnetic core elongates and deforms. The mechanical energy is transferred to the shell layer where electric polarisation is induced. This is called strain-mediated magnetoelectric coupling. Such nanoparticles have wide-ranging biomedical applications such as neural stimulation, ion-channel gating, on-demand drug delivery, tissue regeneration, etc. [3.4] The MENPs are conventionally achieved through a two-step wet chemical synthesis technique. [3] The student will work with interdisciplinary team of chemists to synthesise novel MENPs, and collaborate with physicists to characterise the surface charge and voltage generated by MENP using ensemble methods that require the powder to be pelletised into a disk for electrical characterisation. [4] This has been shown to induce deformities and present issues with leakage current. The student will have opportunities to utilise chemical synthetic skills of fabrications of nanoparticles, chemical characterisation such as ICP, FTIR and physical characterisations such as TEM, XRD, SQUID, TGA and biofunctionalization of nanoparticles and their characterisation such as DLS. The student will also develop novel methodologies for surface charge, and voltage characterisation of MENP suspended in solution using electrochemical techniques. We look for students with excellent background in chemistry, material science and condense matter physics who has strong research capability (e.g. master research project on the relevant area).

References

1. Nature Reviews Materials. 2016, 1:1.
2. Nano Letters. 2020, 20: 5765.
3. Molecular aspects of medicine. 2021, 4:101046.
4. NPG Asia Materials. 2010, 2:61-8.

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