Annual Report 2007 - The Australian Nanotechnology Network

of micromanipulation equipment was very difficult and needs to be improved. The
optimal design is the direct fabrication of PA on Si chip by evaporation and etching of
thin Al film on the top followed by backside etching of silicon which will be used in
future work.
4. Preliminary ion channel studies confirmed good resistivity properties of fabricated
LB/PA membranes which verify the defect free LB layer of PA. However, results with
incorporated protein didn’t prove the formation of protein ion channels, although AFM
images showed presence of protein on the surface. However this is a very complex study
which requires much more time than I had during this visit.
5. Additional work is in process using membranes with low density pores to prove their
stability and ion-channel performance.
The collaboration with Prof Lal and his research group (Dr Fernando T. Arce, and Dr Srinivasan
Ramachandran) is continuing. The manuscript from this work is in preparation, target journal
Langmuir.
University of Chicago Department of medicine
Dr Jozelito Razal (Uni Wollongong) – visit to the University of Dallas, USA
Jozelito is an Early Career Researcher and his ea of research is carbon nanotube synthesis and
processing.
The primary aim of this visit is to explore possible strategies of interfacing biological molecules
into carbon nanotube (CNT) architectures. Specifically, this project intends to gain significant
understanding of the dry-spinning process involved in fabricating multifunctional CNT yarns and
transparent sheets in order to develop a viable system in incorporating biological entities in the
CNT structure. This project anticipates producing and understanding the properties of resulting
composite biomaterial with nanoscale characteristics while maintaining the unique electronic and
mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes.
His application was supported by his supervisor Prof Gordon Wallace and by Prof Ray
Baughman from the University of Texas in Dallas, USA.
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