Dr. Ishac Kandas
Summary: - The main research activity is to fabricate novel piezoelectric electrospun nanofibers from synthetic spider silk proteins. In this project, we are fabricating spider silk proteins nanofibers embedded with nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes, gold nanoparticles, and ceria nanoparticles. These nanostructure-nanofiber composites are synthesized as core-shell structures where the core is the spider silk proteins nanofibers with embedded nanoparticles with outer shell such as PVA and PEO. The piezo-electricity, electrical conductivity, mechanical, chemical, and optical characteristics of the core-shell and sandwiched nanostructures are analyzed. The targeted applications for these nanostructures are in biomedicine and include their use in the regrowth of nerves in the neural system and in wearable and implantable electronics
