Birgül Kalkan
Main Focus
I am particularly interested in:
- Solvent-free production of cellulose nanocrystals by mechanochemistry
- Production of chitin nanocrystals from shrimp and fungal chitin
- Self-assembly of nanocrystals (chitin and cellulose nanocrystals)
Curriculum Vitae
Birgül Kalkan is a PhD student in the Department of Sustainable and Bio-inspired Materials, headed by Prof. Silvia Vignolini, at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces.
Birgül studied Chemistry at Istanbul Technical University and finished her Bachelor’s and Master’s theses in Soft Materials Research Laboratory at the Chemistry Department. During her studies, she mainly focused on preparation of temperature- and pH-responsive semi-interpenetrating hydrogels and investigated mechanical properties, equilibrium/dynamic swelling behavior and demonstrated potential use of the produced hydrogels in wastewater treatment with dye adsorption tests. After finishing her Master’s, she did an internship on synthesis and characterization of thermoresponsive polymers for the interaction with enzymes at Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP in Potsdam. In June 2023, Birgül started working as a PhD student at Sustainable and Bio-inspired Materials Department at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces.