Zul Merican

Zul Merican
Department of Fundamental and Applied Sciences
Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia

Biography

A well-rounded academic, researcher, project manager, mentor and mid-career professional with 10 years’ experience focusing on polymer chemistry, materials science, nanotechnology, biomaterials, biosensors, enhanced oil recovery and catalysis. Receiver of several excellent awards: University of New England K.G. Lewis Prize (1997), Australian Research Council (ARC) Funded Postgraduate Scholarship (1998), New Staff Start-Up Research Fund of University of Queensland (2007) and Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) award (2008-2009). With a long-standing collaboration with Prof. Craig J. Hawker, the work on self-assembly of polymer-gold nanoparticle composites at University of Queensland, Australia resulted in high-impact American Chemical Society (ACS) journal publications, with a significant number of citations. My career objective is to strive for excellent for a higher education institution that provides an atmosphere of mutual growth and benefits, where I can continue to express my talents and potential.

Research Interest

Nanostructured materials, Wet-chemical synthesis, Surface chemistry, Functionalized nanomaterials, Heterogeneous catalysis, Metallic/Oxides nanoparticles, Biosensors as a detection strategy, Biomaterials, Structural/Analytical characterization, Nanocomposites.
Polymer synthesis (functional, block co-polymers) via controlled living radical polymerization techniques and other related techniques (Free radical, RAFT, ATRP, NMP, ROMP).
Artificial intelligence-based optimization techniques as the tool for the extensive theoretical study of large polymeric systems anticipating the properties of interest.
Organic Synthesis. Chemistry of metal-coordinated porphyrins. Supramolecular chemistry. Host-guest dynamic systems.
Synthesis and modification of the surface of peptidomimetic hydrogels & growth study of corneal epithelial cells.
Characterization and relevant spectroscopy techniques e.g. Atomic Force Microscopy, Attenuated Reflectance Fourier Transformed Infra-Red Spectrometry, Confocal Microscopy, (Photo-) Differential Scanning Calorimetry, Dynamic Light Scattering, Gas and Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Raman Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Size Exclusion Chromatography, Thermogravimetry, (Scanning-) Transmission Electron Microscopy, Ultra Violet-Visible Spectroscopy, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy.