Senior Lecturer Dr Kamali Kannangara

• Biography
• Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise
• Grants / Current Projects
• Selected Publications
• Contact Details

Biography

Dr Kamali Kannangara is the chief Investigator of ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials – UWS node, has over 50 refereed publications on synthesis of organic/metallorganic compounds and nanomaterials, and the use of spectroscopic techniques for the elucidation of molecular structure. These synthetic skills have been successfully applied to other fields such as nanotechnology, geochemistry, environmental and forensic sciences.

In recent years, she has been working on controlled synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), functionalisation of CNTs using microwave irradiation conditions, mainly to improve the dispersion of CNTs to form nanocomposites with improved material and mechanical properties. She has co-authored a book on "Nanotechnology" - UNSW and CRC Press, published in 2002. In addition, she is carrying out collaborative research with the UWS Centre for Plants and the Environment in understanding impacts of climate change on chemical composition in plant tissues and uptake of nutrients. After joining UWS in 2003, she has played a key role in organising and acquiring the state-of-art research facilities on materials characterisation and setting the research on an upward trajectory; publishing regularly in internationally recognized journals, deriving part of their research funding from the very competitive ARC and other funding schemes. She has supervised a number of higher degree students, and currently supervises two PhD students.

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Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise

Organic Chemistry, Synthetic methodologies, Charaterisation of organic molecules, Materials characterisation,

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Grants / Current Projects

Funded by ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional nanomaterials:

• Functionalisation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) using microwave irradiation.
• Controlled synthesis and mechanism of CNTs

Funded by CSIRO -Energy transformed Flgaship

• Effective catalysts for biofuel from Microalgae.

Funded by Sustainability grant -UWS

• Uptake of nutrients and partitioning within the Eucalyptus plants

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Selected Publications

Book Chapters

Milev, A. S.; Kannangara, G. S. K.; Wilson, M. A. Nanotechnology. Kirk-Othmer Encyclopaedia of Chemical Technology (5th Edition) (2006), 17, 44-70.

Reddy, N., Wilson, M. A., Kannangara, G. S. K., Price, W. S. and Lee, G. S .H., 2005. Forensic Applications of NMR Imaging and Solid State NMR Spectroscopy In Forensic Photography and Imaging. Porter G, editor. CRC Press.

Refereed Journal Publications

S. Smart, D. Fania, A. Milev, G.S.K. Kannangara, M. Lu and D. Martin “The effect of carbon nanotube hydrophobicity on the mechanical properties of carbon nanotube reinforced thermoplastic polyurethane nanocomposites” J. Appl. Polymer Sci., (accepted, 13 July 2009).

N.H. Tran, J.R. Bartlett, G.S.K. Kannangara, A.S. Milev, H. Volk and M. Wilson “Catalytic upgrading of bio-refinery oil from micro-algae”, Fuel, 89, 265-274 (2010).

N. H. Tran, M. A. Wilson, A. S. Milev, J. R. Bartlett, R. N. Lamb, D. Martin and G. S. K. Kannangara, "Photoemission and absorption spectroscopy of carbon nanotube interfacial interaction," Adv. Colloid Interface Sci. 145, 23-41 (2009).

A. S. Milev, N. Tran, G. S. K. Kannangara, M. A. Wilson and I. Avramov, "Polymorphic Transformation of Iron-Phthalocyanine and the Effect on Carbon Nanotube Synthesis," J. Phys. Chem. C 112 (14), 5339-5347 (2008).

A. Milev, M. Wilson, G. S. K. Kannangara and N. Tran, "X-ray diffraction line profile analysis of nanocrystalline graphite," Mat. Chem. Phys. 111 (2-3), 346-350 (2008).

M. A. Wilson, N. H. Tran, Adrian S. Milev, G. S. K. Kannangara, Herbert Volk and G. Q. Max Lu, "Nanomaterials in soils," Geoderma 146 (1-2), 291-302 (2008).

N. H. Tran, A. S. Milev, M. A. Wilson, J. R. Bartlett, and G. S. K. Kannangara, "Mechanism of carbon nanotube dispersion and precipitation during treatment with poly(acrylic acid)," Surf. Interface Anal. 40 (9), 1294-1298 (2008).

N. H. Tran, M. A. Wilson, A. S. Milev, G. R. Dennis, and G. S. K. Kannangara, "Mechanism of silica nano-plate formation from lucentite," Surf. Rev. Lett. 14 (2), 235-239 (2007).

A. Milev, G. S. K. Kannangara, N. Tran, and M. Wilson, "Molecular structure reorganisation of Fe-, Co- and Ni-phthalocyanines upon milling," Int. J. Nanotech. 4 (5), 516-522 (2007).

N. H. Tran, M. A. Wilson, A. S. Milev, G. R. Dennis, A. L. McCutcheon, G. S. K. Kannangara and R. N. Lamb, "Structural-Chemical Evolution within Exfoliated Clays," Langmuir 22 (15), 6696-6700 (2006).

N. H. Tran, M. A. Wilson, A. S. Milev, G. R. Dennis, G. S. K. Kannangara and R. N. Lamb, "Dispersion of silicate nano-plates within poly(acrylic acid) and their interfacial interactions," Sci. Tech. Adv. Mater. 7 (8), 786-791 (2006).

N. H. Tran, G. R. Dennis, A. S. Milev, G. S. K. Kannangara, P. Williams, M. A. Wilson, and R. N. Lamb, "Dispersion of organically modified clays within n-alcohols," J. Colloid Interface Sci. 297 (2), 541-545 (2006).

A. Milev, N. Tran, G. S. K. Kannangara, and M. Wilson, "Influence of bond defects on coiling of graphite," Sci. Tech. Adv. Mater 7 (8), 834-838 (2006).

H. Tran N., R. Dennis Gary, S. Milev A., G. S. K. Kannangara, A. Wilson M., and N. Lamb Robert, "Interactions of sodium montmorillonite with poly(acrylic acid)," J. Colloid Interface Sci. 290 (2), 392-396 (2005).

D. E. Smeulders, A. S. Milev, G. S. K. Kannangara, and M. A. Wilson, "Rod milling and thermal annealing of graphite: passing the equilibrium barrier," J. Mater. Sci. 40 (3), 655-662 (2005).

A. S. Milev, Alan McCutcheon, G. S. K. Kannangara, M. A. Wilson, and Thilanga Y. Bandara, "Precursor Decomposition and Nucleation Kinetics during Platelike Apatite Synthesis," J. Phys. Chem. B 109 (36), 17304-17310 (2005).

McCutcheon, A., Hu. J., Kannangara, G.S.K., Wilson, M.A., and Reddy, N. 2005. 29Si labelled nanoaluminosilicate imogolite, Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, 351, 1967-1972.

Bandara, T. S., Kannangara, G. S. K., Wilson, M. A., Boreham, C. J., Fisher, K. 2005. The study of Australian Coal Maturity: Relationship between Solid-state NMR Aromaticities and Organic Free Radical Count. Energy and Fuels, 19, 954-959.

Marshall, C.P., Kannangara, G.S.K., Alvarez, A and Wilson, M.A., 2005. Characterisation of insoluble charcoal in Weipa bauxite, Carbon, 43, 1279-1285.

Refereed Conference Publications

Wilson M., Volk H., Tran N., Milev A and Kannangara G.S.K., Organic nanomaterials in soils, 15PthP Australian Organic Geochemistry Conference, 8-12 September 2008, Adelaide, South Australia.

Milev A., G.S. Kamali Kannangara, N. Tran and Wilson M., Effect of Order® Disorder Transformation of Iron-phthalocyanine Precursor on CNT Synthesis, NanoTube08 June 29 - July 4, 2008, Montpellier, France.

N H Tran, M A Wilson, A S Milev, G R Dennis and G S K Kannangara, Formation mechanism and surface property of exfoliated silica nano-plates, International conference on Nanoscience and Technology, July 2-6, 2007 Stockholm, Sweden. Journal of Physics: Conference series, 100, (2008) 012013 (4 pp).

A S Milev, M A Wilson, N H Tran, G R Dennis and G S K Kannangara Mechanism of carbon nanotube formation from ball milled iron pthalocyanine, International conference on Nanoscience and Technology, July 2-6, 2007, Stockholm, Sweden. Journal of Physics: Conference series, 100, (2008) 052089 (4 pp).

N H Tran, M A Wilson, A S Milev, G R Dennis, G S K Kannangara, R N Lamb, “Mechanism of exfoliation of clays”, The Ninth International Conference on Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation, May 28 - June 2, 2006,Daegu, Korea, American Institute of Physics (AIP) Conf. Proc. 879, 1642 (2007).

A S Milev, N H Tran, M A Wilson, G S K Kannangara, “Microstructural Changes upon Milling of Graphite in Water and Subsequent MWCNT Formation During High Temperature Annealing”, The Ninth International Conference on Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation, May 28 - June 2 2006, Daegu, Korea, American Institute of Physics (AIP) Conf. Proc. 879, 1436 (2007).

Milev, A., Tran, N., Kannangara, G.S.K., Wilson, M., Effect of Bond Structure Modification on Coiling of Graphite, NSRRC Twelfth Users' Meeting, October 3 - 4, 2006, Hsinchu, Taiwan.

N H Tran, M A Wilson, A S Milev, G R Dennis, G S K Kannangara, R N Lamb, L Fan, Y W Yang, Formation mechanism of silica plate from lucentite, National Synchrotron Radiation Research Centre Activity Report, Hsinchu, Taiwan, 2007.

N H Tran, M A Wilson, A S Milev, G R Dennis, G S K Kannangara, R N Lamb, L Fan, Y W Yang, Interactions of poly(acrylic acid) with montmorillonite, National Synchrotron Radiation Research Centre Activity Report, Hsinchu, Taiwan, 2006.

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