Research activities at Brighton include:
- Collaboration with chemists, engineers, biomedical scientists, and clinicians in the university
- Collaboration with physicists, chemists and engineers at universities other than Brighton
- Collaboration with industrialists
- Collaboration with college and school-level staff and their research project students
- Collaboration with publishers and editors
- Collaboration with professional bodies
- Collaboration with university educators
I have a longstanding interest in nanoscience, nanotechnology and nanophysics, condensed or soft-matter self-assemblies and coarse dispersions, including colloidal encapsulation systems and the surface adsorption of functionalising polymers. I study complex formulations such as vaccines, particulate drug delivery systems and nanoencapsulation techniques in considerable depth. I work routinely with biosurfactants (such as proteins and peptides or gums), natural polymers, sustainable materials and synthetically modified materials.
I am interested in recycling and re-exploitation of spent and soiled or spent materials or polluted environments. I am interested in the pollution of water systems and soils by heavy metals, pharmaceuticals and pesticides and by the role micro- and nano-plastic pollution plays in the damage to rivers, coastlines and seas. Work with microplastics (solid bodies) in terms of characterisation of adsorbates and organo-metallic or protein-polysaccharide biofilm fouling and the chemistry of seafoams also feature in my current research. I work with surface active molecules in the form of simple and complex foams and thin liquid films (foam lamellae). These structures relate to the quasi-2D-architectures created for a range of purposes; as means of sensing, synthesis and in their own right, to study processes such as statistical mechanics and energetics. As a nanotechnologist I also work in the field of miniaturised analytical systems – microfluidics, microarrays, sensors, diagnostic systems, and biosensors. I work in the context of product and process design and investigations associated with engineering and manufacturing process modelling. I work with the mechanics and rheology of a range of materials.
I am interested in 'invention' and equipment fabrication and design. I am fascinated by physical and engineering applications of mesophase materials (liquid crystals), coarse and colloidal dispersions, and complex fluids, such as ionic liquids, thermotropic materials, gels and emulsions.
Knowledge Exchange
My interest in knowledge exchange (KE) is manifested in university teaching and research but also inprofessional body (RSC, RPSGB, IOM3, HEA) and STEM Ambassador work (schools, colleges, university summer schools). Yet more KE is undertaken by industrial consultancy (Smpl Innovations GmbH, Graphic Supplies, Cryolabs, Biofrontera AG, etc), industrially-related academic study (KTPs, KEEP+), pure academic research with chemists, biologists, physicists and engineers at the ֱ̲ and the University of Sussex but also more globally (Bulgaria, France, Italy, Sweden, USA, China, India, etc). Even more KE occurs through RCUK grant reviewing activities (EPSRC, MRC, BBSRC), editorial board and editorships (CDDT, Current Nanomedicine) for scientific periodicals, publisher book reviewing (HEA, Elsevier, Wiley) and in text book writing for three fully-authored books (Wiley-Blackwell).
Past, present and futureresearch projects and topics:
- Plasma treatment of metals for vapour deposition
- Flax and hemp materials and their non-food use
- Nanomaterials in composite polymer materials
- Microemulsions for drug delivery
- Applications of coarse dispersions and complex fluids
- Thin liquid films and foams. Wetting transitions and thin liquid films
- Surface adsorption of polymers and proteins
- Nicotine replacement therapy and drug delivery systems
- 3D/4Dprinting and photo-reactive polymers
- Recycling and re-assignment of waste absorbent cotton materials
- Physics of droplet impact, spreading and fluid mechanics
- Nanoparticle and polymer drug delivery systems
- Photo-dynamic nanoparticle therapy for cancer treatment
- Nanotechnology for pharmaceutical, medical and food packaging
- Foodphysics and food process engineering
- Status indicating medical device materials
- Environmentally responsive encapsulated metal nanoparticles for sensor use
- Complex fluids, ionic liquids and liquid crystals
- Composite insulating materials
- The heavy metal content of industrial wastewater and landfill discharge/leachate
- Micro-plastics as 'nucleation' bodies for marine pollution and their role in seaborne and food-chain concentration,based on surface physics and composition chemistry,and the subsequent effects on geosystems and marine ecology
Awards
- Sosabowski, M.H., Piatt, R., Sarker, D.K. (2003) “Young Chemists’ Learning Project,” ֱ̲ Innovation Awards 2003 - Prize Winner, Business Services, University Brighton
- Dipak K. Sarker, Featured chemist: RSC News Chemistry World, Feb 2005, p12
- Chair of the Downland Section of RSC from (Sussex, Surrey, Hamphire, Kent) 2005-2008
Memberships
- Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). Fellow designated: CChem FRSC
- Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3). Fellow designated: FIMMM
- Institute of Nanotechnology
- Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB), Academic Pharmacy Group
- ֱ̲ – School Safety Officer (chemistry)
- ֱ̲ – Sustainability representative - Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences
- ֱ̲ – Enterprise representative - Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences
- ֱ̲ – Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences Research Ethics Committee
Editorships
- Section Editor: Current Drug Delivery Technologies
- Associate Editor: Current Nanomedicine
- Special Issue Editor: Nanomaterials -Synthesis, Properties and Application of Novel Nanostructured Biomaterials
Editorial boards
- Recent Patents on Drug Delivery and Formulation
- International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education
- Open Colloid Science Journal
- Advanced Materials Reviews
- Advanced Materials Letters
- Asian Journal of Pharmaceutics
- Inventi Rapid-Impact: Pharm Tech
- Khimiya (Chemistry)
- Journal of Modern Medicinal Chemistry
- Journal of the Chinese Advanced Materials Society
- Recent Patents on Engineering
- ISRN Journal of Chemistry: Medicinal Chemistry
- International Journal of Information System and Management Research
Organising committees
- Waste Management Conference Team - KTP Project 2019/2020 (ֱ̲)
- Conference Committee - 2nd International Conference on Advanced Materials 2013 (China)
- Organising committee: International Union of Advanced Materials - Academic Committee Member 2011, Hong Kong
- Advisory board: Advanced Materials World Congress (AM 2013, organized by the International Association of Advanced Materials), Turkey, September 2013
- International Advisory Board 2ndWorld Conference on Science and Mathematics Education, 15-17 Oct 2015, Cyprus