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Aldo R Boccaccini

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  • Nanostructured composites with glass, ceramic and polymer matrices for structural, functional and biomedical applications
  • Electrophoretic Deposition (EPD) as a nanotechnology tool for manipulating nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes under electric fields
 Contact details:
Office: 2.10
Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 6731
Ext: 46731
Fax: +44 (0)20 7594 6757
Email: a.boccaccini@imperial.ac.uk

Research Interest
The research activities of Prof. Boccaccini are in:

  • Nanostructured composites with glass, ceramic and polymer matrices for structural, functional and biomedical applications.
  • Electrophoretic Deposition (EPD) as a nanotechnology tool for manipulating nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes under electric fields.
  • Biomedical materials and tissue engineering scaffolds with bioactive nanoparticles and nanotubes.
  • Materials for sustainable development and waste recycling based on glass-ceramics and transparent nanocrystalline/glass matrix composites.

Other activities
Professor Boccaccinin is Visiting lecturer, Aachen Technical University (RWTH), Germany. Fellow of Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining American Ceramic Society, Member German Glass Society, Member London Materials Society, Council member EPSRC, College Member Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society, Member, European Council Imperial College London, Ambassador of Imperial College London Nanotoxicology Research in South Kensington (NanoRisk), Member of the management committee Structural Ceramics Network (SCERN), Member and Working Group Coordinator Chairman, 3rd International Conference on Electrophoretic Deposition, Hyogo, Japan, October 2008.  Member, International Scientific Committee of 11th Annual Seminar and Meeting "Ceramics, Cells and Tissues", Faenza, Italy, October 2007.Member, International Advisory Board, 2nd International Congress on Ceramics, Verona, Italy - June 28-July 4 2008. Member, International Advisory Board, EU Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society Meeting, Coimbra, Portugal, 2008.

Biography
Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini holds an MSc (Nuclear Engineering) from Instituto Balseiro (Argentina), PhD (Dr-Ing.) from Aachen University of Technology (Germany) and Habilitation from Ilmenau University of Technology (Germany). Before joining Imperial College in 2000, he had appointments at the University of Birmingham (UK), the University of California at San Diego (USA) and the Ilmenau University of Technology (Germany). The research activities of Dr. Boccaccini are in the broad area of glasses, ceramics and polymer/glass composites for functional, biomedical and/or structural applications. The addition of nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes is being investigated to confer improved mechanical, functional and biological properties. He is the author or co-author of more than 250 scientific papers and several book chapters. ARB leads a multidisciplinary large research group composed of 14 PhD students and four post-doctoral researchers.

His achievements have been recognised with the award of the Materials Science and Technology Prize 2003 by the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS) and the Verulam Medal and Prize 2003 of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3). He has been recently elected Fellow of IOM3 and he will be the organiser of the topic area “Biomaterials” in next EUROMAT conference in Nueremberg, Germany (September 2007). ARB has been elected also one of the UK representatives to the European Council of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) and he is the co-editor of the volume “Tissue engineering with ceramics and polymers” (in press, Woodhead Publ., Cambridge). He serves in the Executive Board and is research project leader (topic Nano-cermets) of the EU Network of Excellence “Knowledge-based multicomponent materials (NoE-KMM)”. He is also a member of the management committee of the Nanotoxicology Research in South Kensington (NanoRisk) initiative, working group coordinator of the EPSRC Structural Ceramics Network (SCERN), and past president and current council member of the London Materials Society. He also serves in the editorial board of several scientific journals, including Materials Letters, J. Biomater. Appl., Adv. Eng. Mater., Adv. Applied Ceramics and Tissue Eng. Regenerative Med.

Prof Boccaccini has pioneered the use of electrophoretic deposition for production of nanostructured materials and composites. In the last few years he has developed extensive research activities in the area of scaffold materials for tissue engineering applications and has initiated the development of novel highly porous bioactive and degradable composite scaffolds containing carbon nanotubes and nanoparticles. The addition of a bioactive component, for example tailored compositions of bioactive glasses, is seen as a significant improvement towards clinical applications (third-generation biomaterials) due to the possibility of tuning the degradation rate, mechanical properties and biological response of the scaffold.

Recent Publications

  • Thomas, B. J. C., Shaffer, M. S. P., Boccaccini, A. R., Multi-walled carbon nanotube coatings using electrophoretic deposition (EPD), J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 88 [4] (2005) 980-982.  [link to article]
  • Misra, S. K., Watts, P. C. P., Valappil, S. P., Silva, S. R. P., Roy, I. and Boccaccini, A. R., Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)/Bioglass® composite films containing carbon nanotubes, Nanotechnology, 18 (2007) 075701 (7pp). [link to article]
  • A. R. Boccaccini, F. Chicatun, J. Cho, O. Bretcanu, J. A. Roether, S. Novak, Q. Z. Chen, Carbon Nanotube Coatings on Bioglass-Based Tissue Engineering Scaffolds, Advanced Functional Materials Volume 17, Issue 15, Date: October, 2007, Pages: 2815-2822 [link to article]

Research

Scanning electron microscopy images showing the structure of carbon nanotube films deposited by electrophoretic deposition.