Self-healing smart materials

Achievement of Burcu Saner Okan



Dr. Burcu Saner Okan, one of SUNUM’s researchers, received the best poster award among 330 project posters in Euronanoforum 2013 conference which was Europe's biggest nanotechnology event held from 18th- 20th of June 2013 in Dublin, Ireland. This event is funded by the European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation and its Industrial Technologies programme.

Her project poster is entitled as “Multi-walled nanofiber reinforced self-healing, smart composite material production via triaxial electrospinning technique” supported by Tubitak and being part in COST action MP 1202 “Rational design of hybrid organic-inorganic interfaces: the next step towards advanced functional materials”. Dr. Burcu Saner Okan is the project manager, and Prof. Dr. Yusuf Menceloğlu and Assoc. Prof. Mehmet Yıldız are advisors in this project.

In this project, it is aimed to fabricate self-healing agent filled core/shell nanofibers via multi-axial electrospinning technique. Self-healing nanofibers produced by several polymeric materials are reinforced in matrix for the fabrication of smart composite materials. Therefore, this project opens up a new approach in the field of self-healing composites and brings the innovation in composite technology. These high value-added products can be used in load bearing applications such as wings of wind turbines and load bearing surfaces of aeroplanes.