Start
Mar 03, 2016 - 17:00
End
Mar 03, 2016 - 18:00
Venue
Room 118 Department of Chemical Engineering
Event Type
Speaker
Sreenath Bolisetty ETH Zurich Switzerland
Title
Hybrid Protein Nano-fibrils from Fundamentals to Industrial Applications.
Abstract: Protein aggregation plays major role in many aspects ranging from food material and health science. Globular proteins aggregates at low pH and their self-assembly causes the formation of amyloid like protein fibrils. We investigated snapshots of the fibrillation and aggregation kinetics of multi-stranded β-lactoglobulin amyloid protein fibrils by combining scattering (SANS DLS DDLS) as well as atomic force microscopy (AFM). Here I will emphasize a novel technology in which hybrid membranes made from β-lactoglobulin protein fibrils and porous carbon for the treatment of water contaminated with heavy metals metal cyanides or radioactive substances. During filtration the concentration of heavy metal ions drops by three to five orders of magnitude per passage and the process can be repeated numerous times. The protein fibrils in the composite membrane play the main role of sequestering heavy metal pollutants from the liquid. Importantly these protein fibrils also allow the reduction of membrane-immobilized metal ions into valuable metal nanoparticles or thin films at elevated temperatures or via chemical routes turning a global risk challenge into a unique opportunity. These β-lactoglobulin fibrils act as build blocks to prepare hybrid inorganic nanomaterials through biomineralization process. Inorganic hybrid materials have extraordinary physical properties such as conductive magnetic and optical properties and can serve multiple functional applications ranging from optoelectronics food fortification and catalysis. The hybrid protein membranes for the continuous flow catalytic membrane applications will be discussed in detail.About the speaker: Sreenath Bolisetty is currently working as research scientist at the Swiss federal institute ETH Zurich Switzerland. He received his PhD degree from the University of Bayreuth Germany and Master thesis from the Max-Planck Institute for polymer research Mainz Germany. His current research is focused on protein self-assembly and their inorganic nanohybrids for the functional applications. He has published 45 papers in reputed journals and 2 patents.