Milica Velimirovic started her FWO Senior postdoc fellowship in October 2019. She will work closely with Frank Vanhaecke (UGent) and Kristof Tirez (VITO).
As a part of this position, she will work on a new comprehensive set of fit-for-purpose analytical tools for characterisation of different nanoparticles (NPs), thus enabling a fundamental understanding of their structure, further alteration, and chemical functionalization during the production process. Three case studies will include (1) bimetallic nanoparticles designed for (commercial) purposes in the field of sustainable chemistry and the most attractive nanomaterials for a wide variety of medical applications being (2) super paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, and (3) gold nanorods because of the special physical and chemical properties they exhibit. A unique aspect of this project is the development of a set of analytical tools (methods) for physicochemical characterization of functionalized NPs designed for (commercial) purposes in the field of sustainable chemistry and health diagnostics. This endeavour requires a multidisciplinary approach and will lead to a set of sufficiently precise, accurate and robust techniques for comprehensive characterization of the functionalized NPs by (i) optimisation of existing analytical techniques/instrumentation, and more importantly, (ii) development of new analytical tools and methods, (iii) implementation of new coupling techniques for improved hyphenation, and (iv) novel sample introduction systems.
Milica Velimirovic
