Materials and Nanoscale Phenomena
At the institutional dimension, this theme was chosen for representing lines of research in graduate programs with grades 7, 6 and 5 at CAPES quadrennial assessment, grades which reflect international and national excellence to the referred programs. The research in nanomaterials accomplished at UFC involves international collaborations with first-class institutions in the USA and Europe and has produced defined and relevant results and impacts. Therefore, the choice of nanomaterials is a strategic decision to maintain the high level of the research’s internationalization in this area, demonstrated by the international insertion of the teams and programs with grades 7 and 6 participating in the project. Another strategic factor is the theme’s convergent feature, evident in the articulation of research groups of excellence working in different graduate programs in the areas of Physics, Biochemistry and Chemical Engineering. Such articulation has expected impacts on several aspects of internationalization, including in graduate and undergraduate teaching, in compliance with UFC’s internationalization institutional agenda. At the scientific dimension, nanoscience is a cutting-edge theme of the current science and the nanomaterials, in particular, have been the research’s focus on several areas of knowledge in the last years, with integrated efforts on the synthesis, characterization, exploitation and technological applications of these new materials. The structural, electronic, optical, magnetic and mechanical properties of the nanostructured materials, dramatically different from the respective extended solids (“bulk”), are opening a wide range of possibilities in the applications to the most diverse areas of technology. The special properties of these materials enable to reveal the phases and atomic structures, new catalysts and adsorbents, as well as the interaction of these nanomaterials with biological systems. In the area of nanobiotechnology, the research at UFC is covered in an INCT (National Institute of Science and Technology) where competences to accomplish cutting-edge works in nanomaterials (nanoparticles, nanotubes, dendrimers, miscelles, etc.) established as markers, sensors or transporters for the delivery of drugs and biomolecules to cell systems. The INCT, with several researchers participating in the project’s team, also fosters scientific contributions which explore the bio-nano interface (corona) phenomena and the interactions of nanomaterials with biological systems.
