Prof Ir. Dr. Srimala A/p Sreekantan
Professor
School Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering
Universiti Sains Malaysia
sreekantansrimala1974@gmail.com

NO	NAME	PROJECT TITLE	RESEARCH DOMAIN (SUB DOMAIN)
1	Prof Ir. Dr. Srimala A/p Sreekantan	Investigation On Sterical Stabilization And Free Radical Polymerization Of Nanocatalyst/polypropylene Nanocomposite To Enhance The Reactive Species Release	Technology and Engineering (Material and Polymer)
2	Assoc. Prof Dr. Md Azman Seeni Mohamed	Investigation On Bio-characterization, Cytotoxicity And Antimicrobial Activity Of Nanocatalyst / Polypropylene (pp) Nanocomposite For Bio-medical Applications	Clinical and Health Sciences (Health Science)
3	Prof. Dr. Farook Adam	Synthesis of metal doped TiO2, g-C3N4 and g-C3N4 coupled TiO2 nanocatalysts for antimicrobial applications	Pure and Applied Science (Chemistry)

3 years (01 December 2016 – 30 November 2019)

Human safety and well-being is threatened by microbes causing numerous infectious diseases resulting in a large number of deaths every year. Despite substantial progress in antimicrobial drugs, many infectious diseases remain difficult to treat. Antimicrobial polymers offer a promising antimicrobial strategy for fighting pathogens and have received considerable attention in both academic and industrial research. Various nanoparticles incorporating polymers such as polyethylene, polyurethane, polyamides, polyvinyl chloride are investigated. Despite these polymers, there is special research interest in obtaining antimicrobial polymeric products from commercial polymers such as polyethylene (PE), especially Low density polyethylene polymer (LDPE) and Linear Low density polypropylene (LLDPE) that are vastly used for biomedical appliance and food packaging. The first stage of this research presents the structural, chemical, thermal property of antimicrobial polymers of two types of PE composite (Li-TiO2/LDPE and TiO2-ZnO/LLDPE). Li-TiO2 nanoparticles obtained from sub-project cluster 1 and TiO2-ZnO photocatalyst synthesized by sol-gel precipitation method were loaded in Low density polyethylene (LDPE) via wet casting method and antimicrobial activity were evaluated by sub-cluster 3. The mechanical property, thermal stability, chemical interaction and structural properties of Li-TiO2 and TiO2-ZnO/LDPE nanocomposites are accomplished in this work. The study highlights LDPE composites with 25TiO2-75ZnO nanocomposite possess better antimicrobial efficacy as compared to Li-TiO2. Nevertheless, Li-TiO2 was found to be a good choice for short term effect. Therefore in the first stage, we have concluded that incorporating 25TiO:75ZnO would be the optimized catalyst to proceed with stabilization work. The findings show the incorporation of less than 6 wt% of 25TiO-75ZnO reinforce the LDPE and improve mechanical strength and young's modulus. It also possesses high thermal stability. Although an increasing trend of percent crystallinity was observed from 5-10 wt%, still the percent of crystallinity of the LDPE composites is considered low (< 30 wt%), and should be feasible for its ultimate antimicrobial application.In the subsequent work Neem-PVA stabilization was investigated and it was found such stabilization improves ROS and metal ion release.

1. To synthesize three different nanocatalysts (metal doped TiO2, metal doped g-C3N4, metal doped TiO2/g-C3N4) via sol-gel assisted hydrothermal method.
2. To investigate the effect of reaction parameters (reaction temperature, time, pH) concentration of metal dopants and g-C3N4 to produce a nano-catalyst catalyst with good surface area, crystallinity and visible light absorption capacity.
3. To investigate the bonding interactions between metal dopants, g-C3N4 with TiO2 to modify the band gap energy, to enhance photocatalytic activity and the morphogenesis of the photocatalysts.

1. Talent:
   • 4 PHD
     1. Norfatehah Binti Basiron (Graduated)
     2. Ku Nur Izzati Binti Ku Mohamad (Graduated)
     3. Nor Hazliana Binti Harun (Graduated)
     4. Cheah Hong Leong (Graduated)
   
   
   • 2 Master
     1. Nur Ruzaina Rahman (Graduated)
     2. Nur Nadia Binti Che Aziz (Graduated)


2. Publication:
   
   • Article in Indexed Journals
     1. Synthesis of metal doped TiO2, g-C3N4 and g-C3N4 coupled TiO2 nanocatalysts for antimicrobial applications (2019) - Web of Science
     2. Deposition Kinetics of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles on Poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) coated Silica Surface: Influences on the Formation of Softer Particle Polyelectrolyte Layer (2017) - Web of Science
     3. Nucleation of octahedral titanate crystals using waste anodic electrolyte from the anodization of TiO2 nanotubes (2017) - Web of Science
     4. Phosphorus and Carbon Co-Doped TiO2 Nanotube Arrays for Excellent ROS Production (2018) - SCOPUS
     5. Bacteriostatic activity of LLDPE nano-composite 2 embedded with sol-gel synthesized TiO2/ZnO 3 coupled oxides with various ratio (2018) - Web of Science, Q1
     6. 3ZnO/TiO2 Coupled Oxides LLDPE Nanocomposite: Effect of Various Weight Percent of Sol-gel Synthesized Catalyst on Structural and Bacteriostatic Activity Against S. Aureus and E. Coli (2018) - SCOPUS
     7. Effect of Li-TiO2 Nanoparticles incorporation in LDPE Polymer Nanocomposite for Biocidal Activity (2019) - SCOPUS
     8. Bacterial regulatory RNAs: complexity, function, and putative drug targeting (2018) - Web of Science, Q1
     9. Bactericidal Capacity of a Heterogeneous TiO2/ZnO Nanocomposite against Multidrug-Resistant and Non-Multidrug-Resistant Bacterial Strains Associated with Nosocomial Infections (2020) - Web of Science
     10. The bactericidal potential of LLDPE with TiO2/ZnO nanocomposites against multidrug resistant pathogens associated with hospital acquired infections (2020) - Web of Science
     11. Shape-Dependent Antibacterial Activity against Staphylococcus aureus of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles (2018) - SCOPUS
     12. Shape-Dependent Antibacterial Activity against Escherichia coli of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles (2018) - MyJurnal
     13. Antibacterial Efficacy and Drug-release Behavior Study of β-tricalcium Phosphate Micro-granules Against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli (2019) - SCOPUS
     14. SHAPE-DEPENDENT ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY AGAINST ESCHERICHIA COLI OF ZINC OXIDE NANOPARTICLES (2018) - SCOPUS
     15. ZnO Surface Doping to Enhance the Photocatalytic Activity of Lithium Titanate/TiO2 for Methylene Blue Photodegradation under Visible Light Irradiation (2020)
   • Conference Proceedings
     1. Preparation of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/graphene-based superhydrophobic coating (2018) - SCOPUS
     2. ZnO incorporated antimicrobial LDPE: Effect of PVA-Neem Functionalization (2018) - SCOPUS
     3. Preparation and Characterization of Visible-light-driven CP-TiO2 Nanotubes Photocatalyst (2018)
     4. Nano-biomaterial and functional genomics research (2018)
     5. Shape-Dependent Antibacterial Activity against Escherichia coli of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles (2017)
     6. Bacteriostatic properties of heterostructure TiO2/ZnO nanocomposite against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli with potential biomedical applications (2018)
   • Book chapter
     1. Factor affecting geometry of TiO2 nanotube arrays (TNA) in aqueous and organic electrolyte (2018) - SCOPUS
     2. Nano TiO2 for Biomedical Applications (2018) - SCOPUS
     3. Titanium dioxide nanotube arrays for solar harvesting applications to address environmental issues (2018)
     4. Targeted Therapeutic Nanoparticles for Cancer and Other Human Diseases (2018)
     5. Polymer-Based Composite in Biomedical Applications (2020)
     6. Polymer Based Nanocomposite: Recent Trend in Safety Assessment in Biomedical Application (2020)


3. Intellectual Property:
   • COPYRIGHT : CRLY00013289
   • COPYRIGHT : CRLY00013287
   • COPYRIGHT : CRLY00019546
   • COPYRIGHT : CRLY00019506
   • COPYRIGHT : CRLY00019505
   • COPYRIGHT : CRLY00019513


4. Collaborations:
   • INFOTECH SYSTEM POLYMER SYSTEM SDN BHD
   • Department of Environmental Science Ireland
   • Infotech Polymer System Sdn Bhd
   • Texchem Polymers Sdn Bhd
   • Fragstar Corporation Sdn Bhd

• Malaysian Technology Expo (MTE 2019) - Silver Medal
• The 4th AMDI Postgraduate Colloquium 2018 - Silver & Gold Medal
• The 5th AMDI Postgraduate Colloquium 2019 - Silver Medal

• Government - Economic growth due to creation of new business in manufacturing.
• Industry - New Value added biomedical appliance replacement for toxic silver.
• Community - Safe biomedical appliance to reduce mortality.
• Academia - Local Technology knows how to combat pathogens.