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Intelligent Polymer Research Institute

Dr Joselito Razal

Figure 1. Highly Conducting Carbon Nanotube Bio-Fibres

In the past, I have worked on several areas.

Our team at the NanoTech Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas has spun carbon nanotube fibers having record lengths, tensile strengths, and energy-to-break (toughness). These fibers combine mechanical integrity with a range of electrochemical functionality that enables the fabrication of artificial muscles, and supercapacitor/battery fibers that can be woven into electronic textiles.

Figure 2. Super Tough Carbon Nanotube Fibres

We have also worked on designing novel amphiphilic peptides to non-covalently attach to carbon nanotubes. The control of surface interaction lead to self-assembly of nanostructures potentially useful for biological applications ranging from biosensors that interface with living systems to artificial contractile organelles.

Figure 3: Controlled Assembly of Carbon Nanotubes by Designed Amphiphilic Peptides

More recently, we have designed artificial muscle systems applicable to variety of robotic devices including prosthetics. We made carbon nanotube-based systems that can simultaneously generate electricity from hydrogen and oxygen as fuel cells while contracting like a muscle. We have also designed systems that when powered by the high energy density fuel cell fuels deliver performance that is orders of magnitude higher than that of mammalian skeletal muscle.

Figure 4: Fuel-Powered Artificial Muscle

5 key publications:

1. Fuel Powered Artificial Muscles. Ebron, Von Howard; Yang, Zhiwei; Seyer, Daniel J.; Kozlov, Mikhail E.; Oh, Jiyoung; Xie, Hui; Razal, Joselito; Hall, Lee J.; Ferraris, John P.; MacDiarmid, Alan G.; Baughman, Ray H. Science 2006, 311(5767), 1580-1583

2. Hierarchical self-assembly of peptide-coated carbon nanotubes. Dalton, A. B.; Ortiz-Acevedo, A.; Zorbas, V.; Brunner, E.; Sampson, W. M.; Collins, S.; Razal, J. M.; Yoshida, M. M.; Baughman, R. H.; Draper, R. K.; Musselman, I. H.; Jose-Yacaman, M.; Dieckmann, G. R. Adv Func Mat, 2004, 14(12), 1147-1151. (Cover Page)

3. Continuous carbon nanotube composite fibers: properties, potential applications, and problems. Dalton, A. B.; Collins, S.; Razal, J.; Munoz, E.; Ebron, V. H.; Kim, B. G.; Coleman, J. N.; Ferraris, J. P.; Baughman, R. H. J Mat Chem, 2004, 14(1), 1-3. (Issue Highlight)

4. Super-tough carbon-nanotube fibers. Dalton, A. B.; Collins, S.; Munoz, E.; Razal, J. M.; Ebron, V. H.; Ferraris, J. P.; Coleman, J. N.; Kim, B. G.; Baughman, R. H. Nature, 2003, 423(6941), 703.

5. Controlled Assembly of Carbon Nanotubes by Designed Amphiphilic Peptide Helices. Dieckmann, G. R.; Dalton, A. B.; Johnson, P. A.; Razal, J.; Chen, J.; Giordano, G. M.; Munoz, E.; Musselman, I. H.; Baughman, R. H.; Draper, R. K. J Am Chem Soc, 2003, 125(7), 1770-1777.

email address: jrazal@uow.edu.au

phone number : +61 2 4221 3319

office number: 41A. 268