Nanomaterials: Electronic, Photonic, and Bionic Applications

 David Bahr
Susmita Bose
K.W. Hipps
Marie-Pierre Laborie
Alexander D. Li

Dr. Susmita Bose, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, received her B.S. in chemistry from Kalyani University, India in 1990, M.S. in chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur in 1992, and Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry from Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey – in 1998. Dr. Bose has joined WSU as a tenure track faculty member in fall 2001. She received the CAREER award from the NSF in 2002 on developing bone graft using calcium phosphate based nanomaterial. She has served as nanomanufacturing panel member for the National Science Foundation (NSF). She has published over 30 papers and given over 40 presentations at different technical conferences, symposia, and companies.

Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Susmita Bose
Nanomaterials for Bone Implant-Related Applications

Nanostructured material can play an important role in modern technology, solving many long-standing as well as emerging problems. Dr. Susmita Bose’s research interest lies in the areas of synthesis, processing, and characterization of nano-structured calcium phosphate based bioceramics, lead zirconate titanate based piezoelectric ceramics, and oxide based catalytic ceramics. Her work focuses on understanding the effects of high surface area nano-grains on material properties compared to their bulk counterparts. Dr. Bose and her colleagues at WSU, Drs. Amit Bandyopadhyay (MME) and Howard Hosick (SMBS), are using nano-structured calcium phosphate- based ceramics to develop controlled porosity structures for repair and reconstruction of bone defects.

To simulate the properties of real bones, Dr. Bose and her group is synthesizing calcium phosphate-based powders using novel processing methods in nanometer size, with high surface area and desired morphology to have better bonding between the particles. So far, the researchers have brought the particle size down to 50 nanometers, or 2000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. The densification of these nanometer size powder particles have already been found to be significantly higher compared to commercially available calcium phosphates. They are also working to add to their recipe other mineral ions that are typically found in human body system. It is anticipated that adding minute amounts of these metal ions such as magnesium, or sodium will strengthen these synthetic implants. Dr. Bose received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation to continue this work.

Dr. Bose is also working on developing multi-layer nano-scale structures of piezoelectric ceramics for micro-machined transducers that can be used in real time dynamic 3D imaging using ultrasound for clinical or underwater mine detection applications.

Contact Information
Susmita Bose, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Washington State University
PO Box 642920
Pullman, WA 99164-2920

Telephone: 509-335-7461
E-mail: sbose@wsu.edu