Qi Fan

Master student

Development and Characterization on the mineralization of amorphous calcium phosphate in Aspergillus niger mycelium matrix

 

Supervisors: M.Sc. Nina Oehlsen, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Linus Stegbauer, (TU Bergakademie Freiberg), Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini

Many natural composite materials are produced through biomineralization, which tightly combine organic biopolymers and inorganic minerals. They usually have excellent mechanical properties. We want to use synthetic methods to imitate the biomineralization. Namely we are using a natural biopolymer and Aspergillus niger mycelium as the matrix and combining them with amorphous calcium phosphate to create a composite material with mechanical properties that conform to the mixing rules of Voigt. At the same time, due to the complexity of Aspergillus niger mycelium, a comprehensive characterisation of it will be carried out. The project is being carried out in collaboration with the group of Prof. Linus Stegbauer at TU Bergakademie Freiberg.