Professor
Chien-Yen Chen
Head of Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan
Title of the talk: Surfactin, An Unusual Type of Biosurfactant from Bacillus subtilis
Abstract
The application of a high throughput analysis method for the screening of potential biosurfactants from natural sources has been developed. The method described here is based on the effect of meniscus shape on the image of a grid viewed through the wells of a 96-well plate. Methods of producing the lipopeptide biosurfactant, surfactin, from cultures of Bacillus subtilis (BBK006) have been investigated. A reactor with integrated foam fractionation was designed and used in batch and continuous modes. Neutron reflectometry has been used to study the structure of the biosurfactant, surfactin, at the air/water and at the hydrophobic solid/water interfaces. The study of photoluminescence of single-walled carbon nanotubes wrapped with surfactin was carried out. Synthesis of silver and gold nanoparticles using a borohydrate reduction was performed at three pH levels and two different temperatures in the presence of surfactin that was used to stabilize the formation of silver nanoparticles. This report describes the use of a renewable, environmentally compatible, biodegradable surfactant as a stabilizing agent for the synthesis of silver and gold nanoparticles.
Biography
Chien-Yen Chen has completed his PhD from Department of Engineering Science at University of Oxford in 2005 and postdoctoral studies in Earth Science Department from same University. He is the head of Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan. He has published more than 50 papers in reputed journals.
Publications: Researchgate.