7/30/2019 Great Things From Small Things Environmental Footprint of Nanoparticles

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Great Things from Small Things. All Rights Reserved. Volume I: Issue: http://genesisnanotech.wordpress.com

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Great Things from Small Things

Environmental Footprint of Nanoparticles

Timely Topics, News, Reviews and Events for All Things Nano

November 29, 2012 Opportunity, indeed Life itself is often discovered and defined in thesmallestof details.

(Nanowerk News) Northwestern University has joined forces withfour Midwestern universities and a national laboratory to establishtheCenter for Sustainable Nanotechnology, which this fall receivedfunding from the National Science Foundation. Chemists,environmental engineers and freshwater scientists will work ondeveloping a deeper understanding of nanotechnologysenvironmental footprint and potential toxicity -- areas littleunderstood, despite a rapid increase of nanomaterials used inconsumer products, from cellphones and laptops to sunscreen andbeer bottles. We need to know how the tiny particles interact with

their environment, and this requires advanced imaging andspectroscopic tools that can see where no eye has seen before, saidFranz M. Geiger, a professor of chemistry in the Weinberg College ofArts and Sciences who is leading the Northwestern team. And the

nanoparticles must be studied without taking them out of theirbiogeochemical environment or modifying them for analysis, he said.

This is an extremely daunting challenge but one we relish. Geigers

team includes Stephanie Walter, Julianne Troiano and Laura Olenick,all doctoral students in his lab. They will utilize their uniquenonlinear optics laboratory to develop new imaging techniques andprovide testing grounds for nanoparticles created by other centermembers.

Robert Hamers, a professor of chemistry at the University ofWisconsin-Madison, is director of the Center for SustainableNanotechnology. Other center members are the University ofMinnesota, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University ofIllinois and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Our center --involving the expertise of researchers at six different institutions --takes ample advantage of synergy, which, by definition, produceseffects that cannot be produced by summing up the individual parts,

Geiger said. Center researchers will focus on understanding how thesurfaces of new as well as aged or weathered nanoparticles interact atthe molecular level with cell membranes and what kind of

biochemical pathways are triggered when these interactions occur.The findings ultimately could help inform the development of federalregulations. In addition to the molecular studies, the researchers willstudy two freshwater organisms, a water flea and a bacterium,feeding them nanoparticles and tracking the particles using methodsto be developed in the center. The biochemical pathways will bestudied to determine if the nanoparticles have any toxic effects on theorganisms. (continued next column)

GenesisNanoTechnology and Trinity

Alliance, LLPhave formed a Joint VenturePartnership for the evaluation andcommercialization of opportunities in thebroad sector ofNanotechnology. The Alliancewill seek Joint Venture Partners and StrategicAlliances that will create enterprise value by

identifying, developing and investing in,nanotechnologies that demonstratesignificant new disruptive capabilities,enhance new or existing productperformance, beneficially impact input costreductions and efficiency and therefore willachieve a sustainable and competitiveadvantage.

bruceh.genesisnanotechnology@gmail.com

Some of the nanomaterials produce asignal by lighting up when light of a certaincolor is shined on them, allowing theparticles to be imaged inside livingorganisms. Geiger and his team will applynonlinear optical approaches to study asubset of these materials: those that can beaccessed using the suite of ultrafast lasersystems available in his laboratory.

The Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology

received a three-year, $1.75 million Phase1 Center for Chemical Innovation grantfrom the National Science Foundation(NSF) this fall. Following the initial phase,the researchers will have the opportunityto apply to the NSF for a much larger grantto continue their work. Geigers researchwith the new center connects to

Northwesterns strategic plan goals ofdiscovering creative solutions to problemsthat will improve lives, communities andthe world as well as focusing on

nanoscience, one of Northwesterns 10areas of greatest strength.

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