YEGâN ERDEM

Assistant Professor

Yegân Erdem

BIOGRAPHY

Yegân Erdem obtained her Ph.D. degree from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of California, Berkeley in 2013 with minors in Materials Science and Electrical Engineering. During her doctoral studies, she worked in Prof. Albert Pisano’s and Prof. Fiona Doyle’s research laboratories towards developing microfluidic systems for controlled synthesis of nanoparticles. She received her M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 2008 where she worked in Prof. Karl Böhringer’s research group on developing textured surfaces for droplet transport and characterization of a walking microrobot. She received her B.Sc. degree in Mechatronics Engineering from Sabancı University, İstanbul, in 2006. Her research areas and interests include microfluidics, MEMS, nanomaterials, nanosensors and energy harvesting. She taught "ME 211: Thermo-Fluids Engineering I" (together with Prof. Çetin) and "ME 615: Microfluidics".

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley (2013)
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington (2008)
B.S., Mechatronics Engineering, Sabancı University (2006)

RESEARCH

Microfluidic systems show great promise for the synthesis of nanomaterials that possess extremely well controlled size, size distribution and shape. Indeed, microfluidic technology provides better control of the reaction conditions than batch-wise synthesis techniques. This is the key to controlling the product characteristics and quality. In addition, new milestones can be realized through the development of smart surfaces formed from the assembly of these nanomaterials. The primary focus of my research group is to focus on the synthesis of nanomaterials by microfluidic methods and the development of these smart surfaces on which nanomaterials are patterned by using microfluidic techniques. These smart surfaces can be used in applications such as energy harvesting and biosensing applications.

During my PhD studies, I obtained practical experience in microfluidics, surface physics and nanomaterial synthesis technology by developing micro-fabrication processes, working on droplet transport on textured surfaces, designing microreactors for nanoparticle synthesis, characterizing the properties of synthesized nanomaterials and printing those materials on substrates. I am enthusiastic about using my experience in microfluidics and nanomaterial technology to establish and direct an interdisciplinary research program focused in the following areas:

Design of Fully Integrated Microfluidic Reactors: Microreactor technology currently focuses on synthesizing nanoparticles in a very controlled environment such that they are monodisperse and at the desired size. Therefore fully integrated microfluidic platforms in which nanoparticles are both synthesized and functionalized such that they can be used in applications such as biodetection and bioseparation are important. Functionalization in a microreactor will improve the quality of these particles since monodisperse size distributions and precise mixing at controlled concentrations can be achieved.

Smart Surfaces Created by Microfluidic Networks: Developing of microfluidic networks for assembling nanomaterials on substrates to create smart surfaces is another research interest. By using this network, different nanoparticles can be assembled on the same substrate at precise locations. This method is a mechanical way of assembling nanoparticles therefore it is independent of substrate material and does not require chemical modification of the surface.

For graduate applications, please also check our department website for the details of application procedure. Undergraduates interested in this research should contact directly to Dr. Erdem via e-mail.

Website: http://minilab.bilkent.edu.tr

RELATED PUBLICATIONS

    Journal Paper
  • M. Kafali, OB Sahinoglu, Y Tufan, CZ Orsel, B Alyuz, EU Saritas, EY Erdem, B Ercan (2023). "Antibacterial Properties and Osteoblast Interactions of Microfluidically Synthesized Chitosan – Spion Composite Nanoparticles", Journal of Biomedical Materials Research: Part A (Accepted)
  • D Bilgili, M Naji, EY Erdem (2023). "Size and Shape Analysis of silica (SiO2) and gold (Au) Nanoparticles", Communication in Statics- Case Studies and Data Analysis (Accepted)
  • M Saqib, PA Tran, B Ercan, EY Erdem (2022). "Microfluidic Methods in Janus Particle Synthesis", Int. J. Nanomedicine, v.17 p.4355-4366 (Review)
  • E Sopubekova, G Kibar, EY Erdem (2021). "Single, binary and successive patterning of charged nanoparticles by electrophoretic deposition", J. Nanoparticle Research, v.23 p.247
  • M Naji, A Javilli, EY Erdem (2021). "Describing Droplet Motion on Surface Textured Ratchet Tracks with an Inverted Double Pendulum Model", Langmuir, v.37(16) p.4810
  • J Maskoun, N Gheshlaghi, F Isik, S Delikanli, O Erdem, EY Erdem*, HV Demir* (2021). "Solution Lasing: Optical Microfluidic Waveguides and Solution Lasers of Colloidal Semiconductor Quantum Wells", Advanced Materials, v.33(10) p.2007131
  • G Özkazanç, L Ünlüsoy, EY Erdem (2021). "Validation and Verification of Cavitation in Microchannels by using an Open-Source Computational Tool", Celal Bayar University Journal of Science, v.17(3) p.223-227
  • M Saqib, EY Erdem (2021). "Generation of Alternating Droplets with Different Viscosities in a Microfluidic Channel", Çukurova University Journal of Faculty of Engineering, v.36(3) p.791-798
  • G. Özkazanç and E. Y. Erdem (2020). "Capillary Origami as a New Method for Printing Nanoparticles on Folded Surfaces", Surfaces and Interfaces
  • M. Abdul Wahab and E. Y. Erdem (2020). "Multi-step microfludic reactor for the synthesis of hybrid nanoparticles", J. Micromech. Microeng
  • A Nikdoost, EY Erdem (2020). "Droplet-based Microfluidic Device for the Synthesis of Silica Nanoparticles", Celal Bayar University Journal of Science, v.16(3) p.245-249
  • G. Kibar, U. Çalışkan, E. Y. Erdem, B. Çetin (2019). "One‐pot synthesis of organic–inorganic hybrid polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane microparticles in a double‐zone temperature controlled microfluidic reactor", Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry, v.57 p.1396-1403
  • Baştopçu, M., Derinöz, A. E., Yılmaz, A. C., Erdem, E. Y (2018). "Textured surfaces as a new platform for nanoparticle synthesis", Soft Matter, DOI: 10.1039/c8sm00091c
  • Saqib, M., Şahinoğlu, O. B., Erdem, E. Y (2018). "Alternating Droplet Formation Mechanisms in Tapered Microchannels", Scientific Reports(8) p.1606
  • Özkan, A., Erdem, Y. (2015). "Numerical analysis of mixing performance in sinusoidal microchannels based on particle motion in droplets", Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, Abstract, Full Text, DOI: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10404-015-1628-7
  • Erdem, Y., Cheng, J., Doyle, F., Pisano, A.P. (2013). "Multi-Temperature Zone, Droplet-based Microreactor for Increased Temperature Control in Nanoparticle Synthesis", Small (available online), DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smll.201302379
  • Doh, I., Erdem, Y., Pisano, A. (2012). "Trapping and Collection of Uniform Size Droplets for Nanoparticle Synthesis", Applied Physics Letters, v.100 p.074106
  • Duncombe, T., Erdem, Y., Shastry, A., Baskaran, R., Böhringer, K. (2012). "Controlling Liquid Drops with Texture Ratchets", Advanced Materials, v.24 p.1545
  • Erdem, Y., Chen, Y., Mohabbi, M., Suh, J., Kovacs, G., Darling, R., Böhringer, K. (2010). "Thermally Actuated Omnidirectional Walking Microrobot", IEEE Journal of MEMS, v.19 p.433
  • Cheng, X., Erdem, Y., Takeuchi, S., Fujita, H., Ratner, B., Böhringer, K. (2010). "Infrared Light Induced Patterning of Proteins on ppNIPAM Thermoresponsive Thin Films: A “Protein Laser Printer", Lab on a Chip, v.8 p.1079
  • Aşık, M.D., Çetin, B., Kaplan, M., Erdem, Y., Sağlam, N. (2016). "3D printed microfluidic reactor for high throughput chitosan nanoparticle synthesis", The 20th Int. Conf. Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences (MicroTAS 2016), Full Text