Professor Marcela Bilek - Research Highlights

Research Summary – Professor Marcela M.M. Bilek

Marcela Bilek has applied her problem solving skills and knowledge of the physical sciences to a broad range of problems in science and industry. Her interests are linked by an underlying theme – the desire to apply her knowledge to problems of significance in the “real world”, and to transfer the technologies conceived in universities to industry where they can be used to the benefit of society. Professor Bilek’s current research projects range from the design and creation of surfaces for protein immobilisation for biomedical applications to the development of highly insulating window glazing.

New materials are urgently needed in a wide range of industries. Advances in medicine are driving the demand for high-performance surfaces and coatings for medical devices, such as biosensors, diagnostic arrays and prosthetics. Marcela Bilek has developed methods for transporting ionised matter (plasma) by means of magnetic fields and creating uniform, high-performance coatings using plasma beams. More recently she has developed techniques of treating materials with high-energy ions and thereby reducing their intrinsic stress and significantly improving adhesion.

Marcela currently heads a number of large interdisciplinary projects focusing on the modification of surfaces to optimise their interactions with biomolecules. She has discovered a new organic surface structure which is capable of immobilising proteins using robust covalent bonds without the need for chemical linkers. These recently patented surfaces, created by energetic ion impacts on polymers or by the deposition of organic species with energetic ion bombardment, also have the desirable property of allowing the proteins to retain their bioactivity over extended periods. This combination of properties makes these surfaces ideal candidates for applications in biosensors, diagnostic array chips and implantable body parts.

She leads projects on the synthesis of novel inorganic materials as thin films. Multi-source deposition systems, including a unique high current pulsed cathodic arc system developed by her team, are being used to synthesise nanostructured materials, MAX phases and transparent conducting oxides (TCOs). Thin films are an ideal way to synthesize phase pure samples of multicomponent phases, such as the MAX phases, which have a nanolaminate hexagonal crystal structure consisting of ceramic carbides or nitrides interspersed with layers of A group elements. This unique structure enables them to combine favourable properties of both ceramics and metals and has led to predictions of applications as high temperature structural components for use in new generation high efficiency engines for example.

Her research approach combines laboratory investigation with theory and focuses on understanding the connection between conditions at the plasma to growth surface interface and the structure and properties of the materials synthesized. Time resolved plasma characterization methods utilized include optical emission spectroscopy, Langmuir probes, spectral line analysis and microwave interferometry. Materials characterisation methods available in the laboratory include FTIR (with ATR), IR and visible wave length ellipsometry, secondary neutral mass spectroscopy (SNMS), XPS, surface energy measurement using contact angle, surface plasmon resonance (SPR), semiconductor parameter analyzer with cryogenics capability and surface profilometry.